GREENSBORO, N.C. — A UNC Greensboro student was excited to go home to Durham for Thanksgiving, but then he learned one of his colleagues tested positive for COVID-19.
"On Thursday I found out a coworker was positive and a friend of mine might have been exposed," Michael Zsiga said. He's a junior at UNCG.
His mom was equally excited to pick him up on Wednesday.
"Obviously we were planning on picking him up and I was so happy last week and I was like 'oh my son is coming home!'" Janis Overlock exclaimed. "We only have one son so it's a big deal for us."
It happens to be Zsiga's favorite holiday.
"It is my favorite, I just love being around family and I love the food."
But his potential exposure to coronavirus is keeping him quarantined on campus.
"Unfortunately yes, it's difficult but it is what it is."
Zsiga actually found out Wednesday afternoon that he tested negative for the virus, but his family decided to still follow the CDC and the University's recommendations.
"My husband, {Michael's dad} has an autoimmune disease," Overlock said. "It's been a rough year and my husband lost some people in the past two weeks to COVID-19."
It'll be their first Thanksgiving apart. But Overlock is just thankful UNCG is keeping Zsiga well-fed and dropping food off at his doorstep as he quarantines.
"They deliver food three times a day so as a mom I’m like OK that's checked off. We can deal with this, this is just going to be a different Thanksgiving."
Overlock is keeping that attitude of gratitude because she knows other families have been through worse this year.
"It's not the perfect Thanksgiving, not the wonderful Thanksgiving, not the Thanksgiving we planned but there are a lot of empty chairs this year at people's tables from all the people who have died from COVID-19 and we're not that and that's a reason to be grateful."
Thanksgiving will just be postponed for this family.
"It's just a moment to pause and think about what's important and this is just a little thing right now it's a blip and it's a holiday," Overlock said. "We’ll have a full table next week and that's really pretty wonderful."