Pat in her room in Chicago, where she began sheltering in place with her roommate on March 21. Photos: Pat Nabong

Sheltering in Place When You’re Half a World Away From Home

A photographer documented a week in her Chicago apartment, navigating the pandemic far from her family in the Philippines

One night, hours after Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered residents of Illinois to shelter in place after the number of Covid-19 diagnoses in the state rose to more than 1,000 cases, my roommate and I decided to watch The Big Sick. We thought a comedy would take our minds off the outside world. In the film, the protagonist’s love interest comes down with a lung infection out of nowhere, and doctors ask him if he consents to putting her in a medically induced coma. My roommate, Charlette, paused the movie and turned to me.

“I think I should get your parents’ contact details, in case of an emergency,” she said. My parents live in Metro Manila, Philippines, about 8,000 miles from where I live in Chicago. Normally, a scene like this wouldn’t prompt either of us to plan for a worst-case scenario, but there’s nothing normal about the world right now. I told Charlette the best way is to reach them is through Facebook Messenger, where we mainly communicate, but I also gave her their cellphone numbers. In return, I took her parents’ numbers; they live about four miles away from mine. Charlette then made a spreadsheet with both our…