Journalist Has Emotional Reunion With Young Son After Quarantine And 49 Days Apart

“Mommy! Mommy, hurry up!” Janis Mackey Frayer’s son is seen yelling to his mom, who was covering the COVID-19 outbreak in China for NBC News.
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Janis Mackey Frayer, a foreign correspondent for NBC News, received “the. best. hug. ever” this week.

The journalist had been on the front lines covering the coronavirus outbreak in Japan, the United Kingdom and China. When she finally returned to her home in Beijing after five weeks of travel, she was informed that she had to self-quarantine for 14 days. Her young son and her husband, Kevin, had to temporarily move out and stay in another apartment while she did so.

Due to the quarantine, travel and other restrictions, she didn’t see her family for 49 days.

On Wednesday, NBC News captured the heartwarming moment Frayer finally got to reunite with her son (see the video above).

In the video, you can see Frayer’s son excitedly jumping up and down once he sees his mother.

“Mommy! Mommy, hurry up!” he yells as she runs to him wearing a face mask.

Frayer posted about the experience to her social media accounts. On Instagram, she noted that every one of those 49 days was “hard.”

“The worry, the decisions, the failed plans, the isolation,” she wrote.

She added of her son:

“Throughout it, this little guy has been brave and sweet and resilient, and I have missed him more than I could possibly say,” she wrote. “Trust that this was easily the. best. hug. ever.”

On March 22, Frayer posted a photo of her apartment door on Instagram. The picture was taken after she finally returned home, and shows two signs.

“Top: from the boy who melts our hearts,” she wrote. “Below: from the quarantine authorities saying that I cannot set foot outside of the apartment for 14 days.”

She explained that while in quarantine she was allowed to order food and supplies “and one of the building staff will deliver and drop at the door.”

The isolation seemed to be grueling for Frayer. On March 23, she posted a video on Instagram that shows her husband and son calling to her from the street while she blows them kisses from her apartment window.

“When you’re in quarantine in #Beijing, and you can’t leave the house, and you haven’t seen or hugged your family since way-too-long-ago,” she wrote alongside the video. “And then you get a phone call to go to the window... and oof, your heart.”


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