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Health care worker tests positive for COVID-19, faces isolation from children

CHARLOTTE — Learning someone you love who tested positive for COVID-19 can be challenging for any family.

A Charlotte-area health care worker, a mother of four, knows that challenge all too well.

Maybelline Harris, a certified nursing assistant, tested positive for the virus over the weekend. Since then, Harris has been isolating herself in an upstairs bedroom apart from her sons.

"It's a hard experience, especially when you have little kids," she said.

Harris captured a recent experience on video during a visit from her 13-year-old son, who stood outside a window.

He carried a card and bouquet of flowers, wiping tears from his face and overwhelmed with concern for his mother.

"I was not expecting that," Harris said.

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"It just really took me off guard because as soon as he put the flowers down, he just started crying," Harris said.

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Harris said that outside of the challenges she faces in the health care industry, being away from her family has proven to be the most difficult. Her sons have asked her a range of questions about the coronavirus -- among them: if she would survive.

“They did ask me if I was going to die,” she said. “I want to let my children know I’m not going anywhere.”