Friends help quarantined San Francisco couple with acts of kindness during coronavirus pandemic

ByJuan Carlos Guerrero KGO logo

Friday, March 27, 2020

Neighbors helping neighbors in SF during pandemic

A San Francisco couple that went into a 14 day quarantine after one of them was infected by COVID-19 didn't just see their lives disrupted. Their inability to leave their house also impacted on if their neighbors.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- (ABC7 multimedia producer Juan Carlos Guerrero has been documenting his 14-day quarantine, which started when his wife contracted COVID-19. Click here to see his coronavirus diary.)

We see the light at the end of the tunnel. Tomorrow, my wife and I end our 14-day quarantine, which started nearly two weeks ago when she contracted COVID-19.

I am excited to have more freedom when I leave the house. Right now, I only go out to walk the dog twice a day. I am excited to go grocery shopping again. We are out of staples like bread, tortillas, bananas, vegetables.

Her quarantine didn't just disrupt our lives, it also affected people around us, like Linda.

She is a woman who lives several blocks from us. My wife saw her one day while she was walking the dog. She was using a walker and was struggling to carry her groceries to her apartment.

My wife volunteered to help. They have stayed in contact and have now become friends. Linda still gets around. She drives herself to medical appointments, but doing simple things like buying groceries are challenging for her.

She probably didn't expect to need out help beyond that one day, but then my wife got a voicemail from Linda.

"Hi Leticia," she said. "I expected that I would be well enough to do some shopping for myself, but I am not in good condition." She then went on to ask for us to buy her some food.

Coronavirus Diary: Quarantined SF family shares daily updates about what it's like to be tested, isolated due to COVID-19 fears

Since then, either my wife or I have been buying her meals. We stock up her freezer and wait until she calls again.

The last time I took her food was exactly two weeks from today. it was the day before my wife came home sick with COViD-19. Since then we have been restricted to our home.

Fortunately, I took her enough food to last her a while. We finally talked to Linda again this week. She mentioned she had fallen down and bumped her head but was otherwise doing well. But she was almost out of food.

Since I can't go into a grocery store yet, we asked one of our friends to get her some food. Tamar Besson has come to our rescue before. We called her last week to get us dog food for our Border Collie mix when we were running low.

Tamar was able to get what Linda needed and then drove to her apartment to drop it off.

Linda was grateful. She left us a voicemail that said, "Thanks so much for sending me Tamar. She's an angel."

It doesn't take angels to help each other out. It just takes a willingness to ask a stranger if they need help. That's something we're seeing a lot more of lately. Hopefully, it will continue when the pandemic is over.

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