‘Incredible people.’ The story of the Georgia couple who tested positive for coronavirus

Update: The couple was released from a Tokyo hospital on March 3 after testing negative twice for COVID-19.

Renee and Clyde Smith, an Atlanta-area couple with ties to Macon, met at Emory University, married and raised three boys together.

On the Diamond Princess cruise ship they boarded in Japan in late January, the couple, both in their 80s, renewed their wedding vows.

Last week, they traded a window-less cabin on the ship they shared with two of their adult grandsons for a hospital room in Tokyo with a view of Mount Fuji.

The Smiths tested positive for the potentially deadly coronavirus but are not showing any symptoms, said David Smith, their middle son who is an attorney in Macon.

“Thank God they are doing well,” Smith said Thursday in an interview with The Telegraph.

One of the grandsons was given a free cruise to anywhere in the world as a gift from a company that he’s worked for during the past couple of summers leading cruise ship excursions in Alaska.

He was allowed to bring anyone he wanted as long as they shared the same cabin, and he chose to bring his brother and his grandparents, “which is very, very nice,” Smith said.

On an excursion during the trip, the person who was originally diagnosed with the virus was on the same bus with Smith’s parents, he said.

A negative then positive coronavirus test

Smith’s parents initially tested negative.

“Then pretty soon right after I’d talked with them, they got a knock on the door, were advised they were positive and needed to be taken to the hospital quickly,” Smith said.

The couple didn’t know if they’d be taken to the same hospital, but they were and initially were placed in rooms side by side.

“The nurse was so sweet,” Smith said. “They moved my dad’s bed into my mom’s room so they could be together. So now they’re staying in the same hospital room.”

They spend a lot of their time reading.

But the initial hospitalization of his parents was scary for Smith.

“They ran a lot of tests on them obviously,” Smith said. “My dad had pneumonia at that point and that was very scary because that is what causes a lot of fatalities. But that’s cleared up and everything is fine now.”

At first, Smith said he was “basically freaking out.”

“I’m actually confident now that they’ll be OK after talking to them every night,” he said. “I can hear it in their voices. They’re the type of people that would say they were OK whether they are or not. They’re more worried about other people. But they have convinced me that they actually are OK.”

No word yet on how long his parents will remain hospitalized, Smith said. They were told to go ahead and cancel a Feb. 20 trip to Portugal, he said.

“They’re talking about how well they are being treated. ... My mom said, ‘I think they think we’re important because they are treating us so well.’ ... Their spirits are very high. But that’s just the type of people they are.”

At last report, 174 of 3,700 people aboard the cruise ship had tested positive for the virus.

‘They are loved by so many people’

Smith’s nephews, both in their early 20s, remain quarantined in their cabin on the ship. They have not been tested yet probably because there are so many people on ship that they are trying to get to everyone as they can, Smith said.

“I am nervous about that because they were quarantined in a small inside cabin with my parents for days. You know, tasting each other’s food ... talking about how good it was in real close quarters,” Smith said. “I’d be surprised if they’re not positive, but I am not worried at this point because they are young and healthy.”

The two are the sons of Smith’s younger brother, who’s doing well and keeps in contact with his sons every day, Smith said. Both of Smith’s brothers are doctors.

His nephews are spending their time reading, watching TV and watching live shows that are shown on the TV in their cabin. They have been told that they may be able to start leaving the room for one to two hours for fresh air but that hasn’t happened yet, Smith said.

“They say the staff shows up with their masks and gloves on and brings them their meals that are still very good,” Smith said. “If you’ve ever been on a cruise, it’s great food.”

Smith talks to his parents nightly. There’s about a 14-hour time difference.

“They are just incredible people,” Smith said. “They are loved by so many people, it’s almost a full-time job responding to all the people who are asking how they are doing.

“An overwhelming amount of people are praying for them, which is obviously helping. I’m so appreciative of that and so are they. They are very healthy for their age. They are very active. I think that helped,” Smith said.

One of his brothers gave them some medication for malaria before they went also.

“I don’t know if that might have helped keep them asymptomatic at this point,” Smith said. “I don’t know if there’s any connection. But there’s little things like that everything combined and just a lot, a lot of prayers have really helped.”

Couple loves traveling

His parents are very family-oriented.

His father left a high-paying job when Smith’s oldest brother was born “so he could meet the family for picnic lunches every day,” Smith said.

His father later had his own computer store and then worked as a systems administrator for the state of Georgia until his retirement.

Smith’s mother is a retired elementary school teacher. She first was a stay-at-home mom until he and his brothers were older. Then she taught English as a second language. She wanted to be at home when her boys got home from school and during the summer, Smith said.

“We had very little growing up,” Smith said. “My mom cooked all the meals. She made all our clothes. We didn’t know we didn’t have a lot. They provided everything we needed.

“Later, I went to Emory and everybody is there with their Porsches and Mercedes and I’m in my 1968 Pontiac Bonneville and my mom is crying, ‘Wish I had more money to give you,’ and I’m like, ‘You have given more valuable things than money.’ “

Having “sacrificed everything” to raise their family, his parents now enjoy traveling in their retirement — having visited seven continents, Smith said.

“They love seeing different places,” he said. “They love meeting different people.”

The coronavirus may have slowed them down by keeping them quarantined, but it’s not daunted their desire to keep traveling, Smith said.

“As my mom put it, she can’t wait to get back and start traveling again,” Smith said.

This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 4:11 PM with the headline "‘Incredible people.’ The story of the Georgia couple who tested positive for coronavirus."