“Being home has really helped me in getting better. Albert took such good care of me, he has been very protective,” said Del Rio of her boyfriend, Albert Carrillo. She was also reunited with beloved little dog Penelope.
Del Rio lost weight due to her illness, but with Carrillo’s cooking and “feeding me, whatever I’ve lost I put right back on! I appreciate him now more than before.”
The Ventura County Heath Care Agency also stays in regular contact.
It has not yet been determined where Del Rio came into contact with the coronavirus. Her sister had a cold at one point but her parents — Dad will soon turn 91, Mom is 87 — both came down with COVID-19, her father being hospitalized several times.
Leading up to her infection, “I did fear COVID-19,” and Del Rio said she wore masks and followed other safety protocol before she became ill.
“Right away I started with the precautions, I was careful but again I never did think it would happen to me. It can hit anyone, anyone at all.”
Del Rio.
“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, anyone. This is no game,” but rather “an ugly, lonely depressing time in a person’s life. I was up there for seven days and I just wanted to go home.”
Del Rio is again back in her garden the corner, waving to friends as they pass on 10th Street honking their horns.
COVID-19, she said, “Is a darkness I would never go back to… and I learned life is too short, way too short, to hold grudges, and be mean to people, not that I ever have. In a blink of an eye it all can be taken away from you. I never want to be there again. Anybody that will listen if it can happen to the lady on the corner,” in spite of precautions, “it can happen to anybody.”
In Santa Paula, as of Nov. 2 there have been 965 residents that tested positive for COVID-10 since March 18, when the first confirmed case was reported. So far, 15 city residents have died.
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Rosie del Rio of Santa Paula is again enjoying the sunshine — and waving to passersby on 10th Street —with her dog Penelope after spending seven days in the hospital with COVID-19. Photo by Victoria Kelly |