‘She could have given up, she didn’t.’ Lexington high school grad pushed through COVID.

Faith Morales worked a shift at a Lexington Starbucks Monday, practiced with her class for her Tates Creek High School graduation Tuesday, and is going to prom Saturday night.

There were times in this pandemic year when Faith, the first known person under 18 treated in a Lexington hospital for Covid-19 in 2020, was so sick that she doubted she would ever spend the last week of her senior year in such a typical way.

Graduation ceremonies for Lexington’s six main high schools will be held indoor at Rupp Arena on Wednesday and Thursday, returning after indoor ceremonies were replaced by alternative outdoor events in 2020.

Last year, Faith, now 18, never thought someone her age could get COVID: “I didn’t expect to get it as bad as I did,” she said.

“The way the media portrayed it was that if you were young and healthy, you would generally be OK, that it mainly targeted older people, people with pre-existing health conditions,” she said. Faith had never had any significant medical problems.

Then Faith, her mother and stepfather tested positive for COVID and because of her siblings’ symptoms, doctors presumed that three of her siblings also had it.

In April 2020, Faith spent 11 days in intensive care at the UK Kentucky Children’s Hospital wearing a high flow oxygen mask. She had COVID, the flu, strep throat, and pneumonia at the same time.

“There were times that I didn’t know if she was going to make it,” her mother, Nancy Rivera-Reyes said. As sick as she was, Faith asked her mother to call Tates Creek High and let them know what was going on so her teachers wouldn’t give her zeros for not participating in virtual classes. From childhood, Faith was focused on school work and on her dreams of helping the community and children once she got a college degree.

From the hospital, Faith was talking to her teachers by phone, and email and text. Everyone thought she would soon be back to her normal, driven self.

But after she was released from the hospital April 19, 2020, Faith still felt sick. Not much was known about the after effects of COVID at that time and she was taken aback by the exhaustion.

“I didn’t really do anything because my lungs were still healing and they were still trying to get used to breathing on my own,” she said.

She used an inhaler and did breathing exercises. When she swept the floor and made dinner, she had to sit down every few minutes to catch her breath. It was August before Faith felt completely recovered.

Even then, Reyes said, “she was a little depressed.”

“Her mind wasn’t completely the same for a little while,” Reyes said. She had always been “super sharp” with numbers. But after COVID, “her thoughts were scrambled.”

“I couldn’t see the drive and enthusiasm in what she wanted in her career,” Reyes said. “She was losing desire to succeed in school.”

She told her mother she didn’t know if she should go on to college, something she had planned on for years.

“For her to lose that light in her, for her to lose that drive, that want, that desire, was very hard to see,” Reyes said.

So Reyes sought therapy for Faith and three of her siblings who were still traumatized by the family’s bout with COVID and the months of quarantine and isolation that followed.

The people who attended church with them at LexCity Church also helped them a lot.

Still, the family was afraid of getting anybody else sick. They just isolated.

Faith returned to in-person instruction at Tates Creek High for a few weeks this spring.

“It was a really really hard adjustment for me, “ Faith said.

“The anxiety got really bad again as she went back to school,” Reyes said.

Faith kept trying, but was afraid she would get COVID again, concerned that everyone she was around weren’t vigilant about wearing their masks.

“I did end up going back to virtual learning,” Faith said.

About the last of March, Faith Morales began bouncing back.

“You can see a difference in her wanting to push through more,” Reyes said. “I see her more alive.”

Faith says she is occasionally out of breath and she is continuing therapy for anxiety.

She is staying close to her family because she feels like she never knows what could happen.

But she is also starting classes at Bluegrass Community and Technical College in August 2021 on a pre-law track and then wants to transfer to the University of Kentucky or Eastern Kentucky University.

Faith has decided she wants to be a child advocacy lawyer.

“I’ve always known I’ve wanted to do something with kids. This past year made me completely realize I want to be there for kids that are going through stuff,” she said.

With her friends and others, Faith has been promoting COVID safety mandates. She will wear her mask as required at graduation on Wednesday night and at prom, even though it’s not required at that outdoor event.

Reyes said she is extremely grateful to God for allowing the family to make it through the coronavirus.

Faith became stronger, Reyes said. “Although she could have given up, she didn’t.”

“I feel like I’ll look back and see that this was actually a good thing for me,” Faith said. “It helped me to be more motivated.”