Reborn after fight to stay alive, early Covid survivor aims to provide hope
Editor’s note: Flint is oftentimes cast in a negative light. While the city has its struggles, take a deeper look and you’ll see people fighting for their hometown, building the city back, and creating its future through their personalities and ideas while staying true to its history and vibrant culture. This weekly series of stories will show that Flint is more than a place. Flint is its people. We are Flint.
FLINT, MI — Laying in a hospital bed for more than a month in the height of the pandemic in 2020, Shan Jackson was fighting for her life.
After the first 27 days in the hospital, the Flint resident went home for three days before COVID-19 symptoms returned and for the next five days, she wasn’t conscious for much.
Jackson answered what she said felt like thousands of questions from the doctors. Two doctors even drove up from Detroit to Ascension Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc Township, amazed to hear and see that a patient was still alive and surviving long COVID.
This took place early in 2020, so nobody had a handle on treating COVID-19, she said.
“I had the daddy of them all, right at the beginning. I remember someone rubbing my leg super hard while I was in the hospital,” Jackson said. “When I came to, I asked the nurse who kept rubbing my leg and saying ‘Not right now, it’s not your time.’ The nurse was shocked, and said, ‘No one ever touched you. Not one time. We only changed the catheter.’ I thank God because he kept me here for this very moment right here to not only change my city, my county, my state, but the world.”
Jackson credits being a medical anomaly and surviving the worst sickness of her life to her diet and willpower.
With that newfound respect for life leaving the hospital a second time, she took 15 balloons down to the Holloway Reservoir.
Jackson took time there to reflect, writing messages on each balloon for the things weighing on her that she wanted to let go of — to help move on from anything holding her back from the life she desired.
“It gave me a whole new beginning, and I gained a whole new view about how to look at life,” Jackson said. “COVID put a lot of perspective on me that I knew that family came first, but there were things I was dealing with at the time — like so many in Flint having mental health issues — that I had not addressed, and I was still holding onto.
“Doing that balloon release, even if I couldn’t tell another person that story, I could write it on a balloon and tell myself before releasing it. Even though I couldn’t speak it out loud, by putting it on a balloon and releasing it, maybe someone of a higher power will be able to truly release this thing off of me.”
Each one had a message of things Jackson was no longer going to hold onto.
Of the messages, Jackson said she addressed fear — fear of being true to who she was, and not conforming to what everyone else wanted her to be.
She also addressed time in her messages. Jackson said being aware of giving herself more time and then learning how to say no became a larger priority.
Another was putting family first and her job second.
“These were all things I wanted to release off of me that I no longer wanted to claim ownership of,” Jackson said. “I felt so free — so free that I spoke my story. Even just writing it down, I took ownership of what I’ve got going on. It gave me a sense of freedom, and then I see the balloons flying away so freely too. It’s like a dove spreading its wings for the very first time.
“I want to be able to create that atmosphere for Flint to give yourselves freedom for the very first time.”
Jackson is teaming up with a friend, Cortisha Shered in Helena, Arkansas — Jackson’s hometown — and uniting the cities during an upcoming event in an effort to provide the same healing opportunity for others.
Her hope is to further bond her birth town with Flint, the city where Jackson was reborn.
The event is called “Release to Healing,” where Jackson will have 200 green and white biodegradable balloons for residents to come leave messages on and release together at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 30, in Brush Park at the Flint sign at the intersection of First and Harrison streets.
Releasing a green balloon, Jackson said, will represent freedom, a new beginning and prosperity. She said white will represent those who’ve lost someone and to honor their memory.
If participants want to release a different color, Jackson advised people to bring it themselves, but please be sure they are biodegradable as well.
Jackson advises participants to arrive early to write the messages on the balloons, as the release will take place promptly at 3:30 p.m.
She said so many people have held on to too many looming or negative experiences in 2023 or even since the pandemic began three years ago.
A lot of people hold onto these experiences in their minds or on their hearts, Jackson said, and don’t tell anyone including families, kids, co-workers or friends.
“Everybody is going through something. Everybody has lost someone, and a lot of us have lost ourselves, so why not write a message to ourselves on these balloons and actually release it for the first time,” Jackson said. “It’s time to say ‘No more. I release this.’ Whether it’s a relationship or you’re going through a divorce. Whether you had a child just pass away, or you just lost your job. This is your opportunity to say, ‘Hey, I’ve been through it all in 2023. In 2024, I take no more. I’m kicking down the door.’
“That’s the whole concept to release a balloon and regain your sense of freedom — and doing it alongside others knowing you’re not alone. This is a gift for yourself. It’s going to be a beautiful thing to see the entire sky lit up with green and white balloons and people come together.”
Read more at The Flint Journal:
We Are Flint: Chefs fueled by passion, connect with community through love of food
We Are Flint: This is Me special needs fashion show shines in its fifth year
We Are Flint: Cancer warrior brings crown, light and hope back home
We Are Flint: The ‘Tamale Queen’ passes her crown down another generation
