COVID Silenced Her Music. What Came Next Changed Everything.

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-02

Izzy Frances had her life mapped out. Music career on the rise, research projects in motion, a clear path ahead. Then COVID hit — and everything went quiet. Not the kind of quiet you choose. The kind that gets forced on you. What she didn't expect? That silence would eventually lead her somewhere she never planned to go. ### When Your Body Says Stop For a lot of people, COVID was a two-week inconvenience. For Izzy, it was the beginning of a long, frustrating battle with chronic illness. The fatigue wasn't the kind you shake off with extra sleep. It settled in. It stayed. Her voice — the instrument she'd spent years training — became unreliable. Some days it worked. Most days it didn't. For a musician, that's not just inconvenient. It's identity-level devastating. "I kept waiting for things to go back to normal," she's said. "But normal wasn't coming back." That realization hits hard. And honestly, it's something more of us are dealing with than we'd like to admit. ### The Research That Took a Sharp Turn Before getting sick, Izzy was deep into research work. Academic, structured, predictable. The kind of work that rewards planning and punishes surprises. COVID didn't care about her plans. When her body couldn't keep up with her old pace, she had to rethink everything. What could she actually do? What still mattered? Turns out, the answer was simpler than she expected: she started paying attention. Not just to her research, but to her body. The signals she'd been ignoring for years. The warning signs she'd powered through because that's what ambitious people do, right? Wrong. That's what people do before they crash. ### Fantasy as a Way Through Here's where the story gets interesting. While recovering — and rethinking — Izzy started writing. Not academic papers. Not research notes. Fantasy fiction. - A world where magic exists - Characters who face impossible odds - Stories that let her explore pain, resilience, and hope without having to explain herself Her debut fantasy novel wasn't part of the plan. But maybe that's exactly why it works. Writing fiction gave her something research never could: a way to process what was happening without needing to solve it. ### What This Means for the Rest of Us Izzy's story isn't just about COVID. It's about what happens when life interrupts your plans and you have to figure out who you are without them. A few things stand out: **Your body keeps score.** Ignoring warning signs doesn't make them go away. It just delays the reckoning. **Pivoting isn't failure.** Sometimes the detour is the destination. Izzy didn't choose to leave music behind — but what she found on the other side has its own kind of value. **Creative work can heal.** Not in a fluffy, inspirational-poster way. In a real, messy, "I don't know what else to do" way. ### The Quiet Lesson Izzy Frances didn't set out to become a fantasy author. She set out to be a musician. Then a researcher. Then — when her body forced the issue — she became someone who listens. To her body. To her limits. To the stories that wanted to be told. That's not a consolation prize. That's growth. And if you're in the middle of your own forced detour right now — the kind you didn't ask for and definitely didn't want — maybe there's something in her story for you too. The silence doesn't last forever. But what you learn in it? That might just change everything.