My Hero By: Kaitlyn Cioc

 My Hero

    As we all know and have experienced, the coronavirus forced everyone to stay home for their own safety starting in March 2019. Many parents stayed home along with their children, but not all of them were able to keep their jobs. My family was very thankful when both of my parents were able to keep the jobs they had before Covid, but it wasn't as great as it sounds. My dad has worked for the military at Picatinny Arsenal for around 5-6 years and my mom is a pharmacist, same as since she graduated college. When Sparta closed their schools and we went into quarantine, Picatinny Arsenal did the same and it was my dad, sister and I home together. However, my mom, being a pharmacist, went to work like normal. Her boss never called her and her coworkers to tell them to stay home and be safe with their families. Being someone who works in the medical field, she was expected to continue working while the rest of her family was at home. 

    My mom works 24 hours throughout the week, and every other weekend-both Saturday and Sunday. When the coronavirus was introduced to the states, so were masks and it took some getting used to for all of us to wear masks when going to stores, doctor offices, restaurants, etc. Since my mom worked through the quarantine, there was no time to slowly get adjusted, she just had to put on a mask and deal with it for 12 hours with no breaks. In the beginning, she was wearing a surgical mask, which then escalated to an N95, which further escalated to an N95 with a surgical mask on top. Her and her coworkers had to buy and hang clear shower curtains above the counters to protect themselves while handing out prescriptions, and weren't allowed to open the drive-through window when helping customers in their cars. As you can probably imagine, their store was getting a million phone calls a minute and while filling and counting prescriptions, logging charts on the computer, and helping customers at the drive through and the counter, my mom was one of only a few employees answering these calls as well. She would tell me everyday how it was so hard for the customers on the phone to hear her, she felt like she had to yell and could only wear the N95 mask alone otherwise her voice was too muffled. Every day that she worked she would come home with a red mark around her mouth and nose from the mask she had worn the entire day. For weeks after quarantine started, my dad, sister and I weren't allowed to hug my mom. Before hanging the shower curtains as a barrier, she was coming in contact with too many people and we didn't know the severity of the risk we would be taking if we were to physically touch someone who was so exposed to this new and deadly virus. This was obviously hard for my dad, sister and I when we realized we couldn't hug my mom when she got home or give her a kiss goodnight, but it was even harder for my mom herself who would come home exhausted and dreaded having to go to work each week. Although she never got a single day off of work so she could look out for her own health, it became easier as the weeks went on as we all became more acclimated. Her and her coworkers learned the best ways for keeping themselves safe and we were finally able to hug my mom once we learned more about the contagion rates. 

    Then, her store was one of the stores in her district that introduced drive-through testing. And you guessed it-my mom had to take care of administering the tests along with everything else she had to do. She had so much on her plate but handled it like it was nothing. Her along with the other people she was working with adjusted and were able to do their jobs more normally as we made it through the spring to the fall. We were recently informed that her store would be getting a testing area separate from the drive through, so soon she will no longer have to take care of that as there will be a designated person to administer them. Thankfully, my mom never contracted Covid and didn't pass the virus to anyone in my family. Seeing her push through this and continue working despite the many, many obstacles she faced made me appreciate her even more than I had before and now more than ever, I proudly call her my hero.