To lose a baby is unthinkable. To do so during the Covid-19 pandemic, in isolation from your husband, family and friends, is the twist of the knife. But this was the fate of Keya Wingfield, a Mumbai-born, US-based Food Network champion chef.

She gave birth to her second child, son Daksh, in February 2021. “He was sick from the get-go,” she remembers. “They just couldn’t figure it out.”

Daksh’s lungs were failing him, and he spent his short life – 55 days – in a neonatal intensive care unit. He had a rare genetic mutation that affected his breathing, keeping his lungs from fully expanding.

It was during the pandemic, when hospital visits were restricted. Wingfield and her husband, David, had to tag team, one with Daksh while the other was at home with their daughter.

For two months, they were like ships in the night. Then their vigil ended.

“He passed away in my arms. It broke me in ways I couldn’t believe – I lost the will to live,” says Wingfield, who could not even turn to her parents in her time of grief, as they had both died.