The Holmes family is using transparency as a line of defense in their battle with COVID-19. They are hoping that sharing their story will give perspective to others on just how close to home the global pandemic hits.
“Welp, we tested positive for the coronavirus,” Karen Allen-Holmes, mother of singer Kennedy Holmes, revealed with a Facebook post on Friday, March 27. “Please do not worry about us as we really do feel so much better than others,” Allen-Holmes said. “Our symptoms are extremely mild at this point. We will continue to remain quarantined and away from all others.”
Those others include Allen-Holmes’ daughter Kennedy, a high school student at John Burroughs School who is famously known as the youngest-ever finalist on NBC’s “The Voice,” and her husband, Shawn Holmes.
After nearly 700 comments regarding the post, Allen-Holmes, her son, Jordon Bow and nephew, Ronald Smith decided to chime in with a video detailing their experience.
“We received an overwhelming response of questions and concerns (we appreciate it),” Allen-Holmes wrote as a preview to the video. “We hope that our transparency can help others in these scary times.”
Their family coronavirus story started on March 11. Bow was studying abroad in Germany when the family was notified to make travel arrangements for him to return home immediately due to the pandemic.
“At that time, he was asleep. We couldn’t get in touch with him, but we were trying to get in touch with him all night long,” Allen-Holmes said.
They worked to get him on the next flight available back to St. Louis the next morning. While simultaneously planning for their son to come home, they had to make tough decisions that would temporarily affect their family dynamic.
Because Bow was traveling and could possibly come in contact with the virus, they knew they would have to get him tested – and in the meantime, quarantine him. Since Allen-Holmes could work from home, her husband Shawn was still working in his office and Kennedy had obligations during spring break – she would quarantine with Bow.
“We wanted to be proactive,” Allen-Holmes said. “Jordan was going through three different airports; we risk the chance of everybody getting the coronavirus.”
Allen-Holmes knew she was putting herself at risk.
“That’s what parents do,” she said. “That was the decision my husband and I had to make.”
She wanted to make sure that her son had someone with him, since he is not the type to complain.
“You really wouldn’t know if his symptoms were bad until they were really bad, so I wanted to make sure I was here with him,” Allen-Holmes said. “I did that knowing that there’s a chance of getting it with him if he does test positive.”
Around Friday the 13th, Bow’s symptoms started. There was slight back pain.
“Not so much pain, but sensitivity,” Bow said. “I also had chills frequently. There was some sore throat, headache and fatigue – pretty typical flu-like symptoms.”
Allen-Holmes’ symptoms began a few days after her son’s. A sore throat, sinus issues and a headache.
On the 17th, Allen-Holmes’ nephew came back to St. Louis. He was dismissed from school in New York because of COVID-19 and decided to spend some time in Miami before coming home. At the end of his trip, he noticed a slight cough – but it wasn’t something that he hadn’t experienced, so he didn’t take it to be a symptom of coronavirus. As a precautionary measure, the family made the decision that Smith should quarantine with Allen-Holmes and Bow.
His next day back home, Smith’s condition worsened.
“By the early afternoon and evening time I developed all of my symptoms,” Smith said. “A fever, body aches, body chills a real nasty cough. Fatigue – I think I slept for 12 or 13 hours that night. There were also slight sinus issues.”
Allen-Holmes’ sinus issues and headache had worsened, but that was about it for her symptoms. On Thursday, March 19, she found it odd that she went to sniff the scent of a body wash and smelled nothing.
Saturday morning, she was watching “Red Table Talk,” a Facebook TV show hosted by Jada Pinkett-Smith. She was interviewing people who had contracted coronavirus.
“They were mentioning how the symptoms – the common symptom that they had was loss of taste and smell,” Allen-Holmes said. “Immediately a lightbulb went off for me. I was like, ‘Wait a minute. I couldn’t smell that body wash. Maybe that’s what was going on.’”
She tried to smell it again and couldn’t. She tried to taste something and couldn’t.
“It kind of freaks you out when those senses aren’t there in that moment,” Allen-Holmes said. “That’s a dead giveaway. It was more so a red flag for me, but we were waiting for Jordan’s results to come.”
In the meantime, they learned that a person traveling with Smith had tested positive.
“I immediately – with all of the symptoms that I had – we basically knew we were going to have it,” Allen-Holmes said.
By the time their tests came back, all three were essentially symptom free. They know that their coronavirus infection was a best-case scenario situation.
“We wanted to do a video so that you guys could see for yourself that we are doing fine,” Allen-Holmes said. “There are people who are having serious symptoms. We are not those people.”
They said that they have an additional 14 days of quarantine ahead of them – but will probably extend beyond that as an added precaution.
“The best thing you can do is stay in the house, so that is the advice we are giving people is to stay at home,” she said. “If you don’t have to go out – don’t go out. It’s important to keep your distance from people, because you never know.”
“It’s a scary time,” Allen-Holmes said. “We are trying to be responsible.”
