Marra family powers through pandemic struggles: The COVID-19 divide

However, COVID-19 has kept them apart.

Mrs Marra was set to return to her native Western Australia to visit her 93-year-old grandmother for the first time in nearly three years before the pandemic locked everyone in place.

"Everything was booked, ready to go, but because everything went AWOL we had to cancel, and it's just been an absolute nightmare since," she said.

"It's been very upsetting because my grandmother's basically my rock, she's the one I lean on the most.

"Of course, not being able to see her or be with her, it's been really, really hard. She's the one I miss the most."

The pandemic hasn't taken things lightly on the Marra family.

Ashley Marra - Sonia's husband - jetted across the ditch to be at his best man's funeral, just as the coronavirus reared its head in both countries.

"He got to New Zealand, and then he was told he wouldn't be able to get back into Australia," Ms Marra said.

"We got him back (into the country) on the day of the border closures. Then in Horsham, he had two weeks in total isolation from the rest of us.

"It was awful, but we knew what was going to happen, so we set up a self-contained campervan in the front yard where he would be totally isolated.

"The kids could still see him through the window, so that was fine."

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Mrs Marra shares everything with her grandma in phone conversations, and in return learns of her grandmother's observations from Busselton, on the southwest tip of Western Australia.

"It's been good in the way she tells me what's going on in little snippets, and I tell her how things are here," she said.

"We talk about way back then because she's been through this type of thing (lockdown) before. We talk about how much easier we have it today than what she had all those years ago.

"But for me, it's been very frustrating because you know I can hear her, but I can't physically see her."

Mrs Marra has been forced to watch with envy as Western Australians slowly return to their pre-COVID-19 freedom, as her adopted home state battles with a second wave of cases.

She urged everyone to do the right thing, with a now overdue reunion with her grandmother top of the priority list once the borders open again.

"I just want people to do the right thing so that we can get the virus under control and we can actually get back to living again," she said.

"I don't know how much longer she's going to have. I would love her to live forever, but I just want everyone to do the right thing so we can get back to normal."

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