By Asher Lehrer-Small, The74, November 28, 2022
It’s been two-and-a-half years since Reid Orlando lost his mother and he continues to feel the sting. His mom, a single parent and ER nurse of three decades, caught the virus while helping patients during the pandemic’s deadly first wave and did not recover.
Now, every new milestone reminds Orlando of her absence: Landing his first job out of college, his younger brother graduating from high school, even smaller occasions like cooking homemade Italian food on Sunday evenings, a tradition of hers that he still keeps alive.
“My life will never go back to normal,” said the older sibling, who, at 23, stepped up to care for his brother, a high school sophomore, and his 80-year-old grandmother. “But I work my best to try to make it as normal as possible and just put one foot in front of the other.”
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