KENSINGTON, Md. — More than 100,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus. The family members of its local victims are hopeful when things reopen that the country does not forget them.
In Montgomery County, more than 540 people have died from the virus, according to the state of Maryland. One of those people was 91-year-old Celine Tracy, of Kensington.
Tracy's daughter, Cynthia, said her mother was always willing to lend an ear.
"She kind of was the glue point that brought all the different generations together," she said.
Cynthia Tracy lost her mother in April after she said the coronavirus had made its way into Celine's senior living facility.
"She wasn't ready to die," Tracy said.
In death, Celine was separated from Cynthia.
Cynthia said her mother's facility did not have personal protection equipment for her to wear when it was time to say goodbye. She said as a physician, she knew she could not risk infecting the rest of her family.
"I said goodbye from the door," she said. "I never touched her again."
Cynthia Tracy's experience is part of the reason why she says she cannot understand the push to reopen businesses and other public spaces across the region.
"I have seen the personal suffering of the patients I've cared for," she said. "The pain of those patients and the horrible pain of the families that have to deal with this thing. It's inconceivable to me that we would be willing to expose one another to this risk."
Tracy said the fact that people cannot see the coronavirus as they would an enemy in a war could be part of the reason some people feel differently than she does.
"We can't see it. We can't feel it. We can't touch it," she said. "And, for the millions of people who haven't either seen that pain, or had the pain themselves of having the disease, or having a family member die of this, they don't get it."
In the end, Tracy said she believes it is all our "moral imperative" to protect one another.
"We have each other's lives in our hands," she said. "We have to respect that. We cannot go around like nothing is happening."