“There’s a myth that once you no longer test positive from COVID, you’ve “recovered.” Like getting over the flu. That could not be further from the truth. Imagine having the flu but you never recover – like a university in hell. You just never graduate!”

MaElena didn’t think she could have children. When she got pregnant and COVID, doctors did an emergency c-section and then put her on a ventilator. 67 days later she held her baby for the first time.

Julia’s symptoms crept in like a rolling fog of fatigue and aching back pain, easy to write​ off as “anxiety” until more symptoms emerged. A couple of weeks later, flattened by COVID’s effects, it brought home that her life and her health were not in her hands.

“Even though our New Rochelle community got a really bad rap in the beginning, I believe we will be part of the cure. Because we were some of the first to get it, that means we were some of the first to recover and donate our blood and plasma.”