May 16, 2020 at 9:13 AM EDT – Updated May 16 at 9:13 AM
WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. (WESH/CNN) — A Florida man has been living for eight weeks on a cruise ship docked at an Italian port as he awaits negative coronavirus test results.
“No day is fun, but some days are better than others,” Taylor Grimes said. “And then some days are just the absolute worst.”
Taylor Grimes was working at a cruise ship jewelry store when all this started in mid-March when a friend of his on the cruise tested positive.
Taylor Grimes also tested positive and now waits on the cruise for the OK to go home. He needs to have two negative tests in row to do so.
However, his mother says that ever since his first positive test, his results have been maddening.
“He’s been tested eight times,” his mother, Ann Grimes, said. “His test results have been positive, positive, negative, positive, negative, positive.”
Now Taylor Grimes is waiting on the results of back-to-back tests this week. Results that his parents don’t really trust.
“We have no confidence right now in the testing procedures,” Ann Grimes said.
They also worry about their son’s wellbeing as his stay on the cruise gets longer and longer.
“I am worried about him, not so much physically, because he hasn’t shown any signs of the virus,” his father, Tom Grimes, said. “But mentally he’s on a never-ending rollercoaster ride.”
Tom and Ann Grimes are doing their best to support their son from afar. Tom Grimes is even letting his beard grow out like his son’s as a “small show of solidarity.”
They even have a plan to celebrate for when he gets the green light to come home. They plan on having friends and family line the road, welcoming him home.
In the meantime, they continue to work to lighten the mood.
“Last night, we set up a picture of him with drinks and posted, ‘Having drinks with Taylor,’” Ann Grimes said. “We thought it was cute. He wasn’t as amused.”
The family hopes that soon, they will be laughing together.
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