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Felicia and Jay met online through the online game Mobile Strike. They chatted for a couple of months in the
game’s online chat room
, where users cannot have pictures, only avatars. “I started to catch feelings,” remembers Jay, who eventually asked Felicia to be his girlfriend. “It was kind of weird because of the distance, but we had so much fun together,” he continues. They kept playing and then graduated to PlayStation and Facetiming. “Then we started talking about seeing each other one day and kept talking about it for a couple of months. And then she was getting on her flight to come and visit me. And that’s when everything got real.” In September 2018, Felicia flew to New Mexico to meet Jay in person on his birthday.

The trip was surreal. “I had never been outside of Europe before, and I had never really flown alone. So that was a new experience for me,” says Felicia. She barely slept during the journey and, on arrival, had been up for at least 30 hours. It was morning when she landed. And the couple spent the next day visiting a mountain. “I was so nervous at the airport,” says Jay. “You get used to this person over the phone or on the game. So, when I first saw her, I panicked.”

Felicia stayed in New Mexico for a fortnight before returning home. And, a year later, she returned. “It wasn’t supposed to be a year, but we could never find a good time,” says Felicia. This time, she stayed for two and a half weeks. And that was the last time the couple saw each other. Jay was supposed to travel to Sweden in December 2019, when the couple were going to reveal the gender of their unborn child, but something came up, and they decided to save up for him to visit in May. They had no idea that Covid-19 would hit so hard.

In May 2019, Felicia had to give birth alone because of Covid-19. And the period leading up to her labour was stressful. “The week before she was born, all my dogs got sick with a parasite or something,” remembers Felicia. “I got barely any sleep because they would wake me up needing to go out. On Tuesday before the birth, I had to drive to the vet because one of the dogs couldn’t walk anymore.” The contractions began the next day. “They weren’t that bad at first, but I knew it was time.”

Felicia was nervous. Thursday went by, and the contractions got worse until she had to go to the hospital. The nurses were shocked to find she was four to five cm dilated. “[The nurse] said I was halfway there,” remembers Felicia, who wanted to grab her overnight bag from her house, a ten-minute walk away. Instead of waiting for a friend to drive her, she decided to walk herself: “It was the longest walk of my life, and on the way, I had a bad contraction. People probably thought I was crazy or dying."

Felicia plans to move to the US with their daughter in the next year or two to be with Jay. “It seems like a long process but we got through Covid-19 so I think we can get through pretty much anything together," she says. "That it is not going to be like this forever is what keeps us going. It makes us a better couple."
Felicia and Jay met online through the online game Mobile Strike. They chatted for a couple of months in the
game’s online chat room
, where users cannot have pictures, only avatars. “I started to catch feelings,” remembers Jay, who eventually asked Felicia to be his girlfriend. “It was kind of weird because of the distance, but we had so much fun together,” he continues. They kept playing and then graduated to PlayStation and Facetiming. “Then we started talking about seeing each other one day and kept talking about it for a couple of months. And then she was getting on her flight to come and visit me. And that’s when everything got real.” In September 2018, Felicia flew to New Mexico to meet Jay in person on his birthday.

The trip was surreal. “I had never been outside of Europe before, and I had never really flown alone. So that was a new experience for me,” says Felicia. She barely slept during the journey and, on arrival, had been up for at least 30 hours. It was morning when she landed. And the couple spent the next day visiting a mountain. “I was so nervous at the airport,” says Jay. “You get used to this person over the phone or on the game. So, when I first saw her, I panicked.”

Felicia stayed in New Mexico for a fortnight before returning home. And, a year later, she returned. “It wasn’t supposed to be a year, but we could never find a good time,” says Felicia. This time, she stayed for two and a half weeks. And that was the last time the couple saw each other. Jay was supposed to travel to Sweden in December 2019, when the couple were going to reveal the gender of their unborn child, but something came up, and they decided to save up for him to visit in May. They had no idea that Covid-19 would hit so hard.

In May 2019, Felicia had to give birth alone because of Covid-19. And the period leading up to her labour was stressful. “The week before she was born, all my dogs got sick with a parasite or something,” remembers Felicia. “I got barely any sleep because they would wake me up needing to go out. On Tuesday before the birth, I had to drive to the vet because one of the dogs couldn’t walk anymore.” The contractions began the next day. “They weren’t that bad at first, but I knew it was time.”

Felicia was nervous. Thursday went by, and the contractions got worse until she had to go to the hospital. The nurses were shocked to find she was four to five cm dilated. “[The nurse] said I was halfway there,” remembers Felicia, who wanted to grab her overnight bag from her house, a ten-minute walk away. Instead of waiting for a friend to drive her, she decided to walk herself: “It was the longest walk of my life, and on the way, I had a bad contraction. People probably thought I was crazy or dying."

Felicia plans to move to the US with their daughter in the next year or two to be with Jay. “It seems like a long process but we got through Covid-19 so I think we can get through pretty much anything together," she says. "That it is not going to be like this forever is what keeps us going. It makes us a better couple."


© A Pandemic Love Story