In the end, it was the community – family, friends, and those that share their faith – that helped Tom and Anita Handley pull through COVID-19.
Last month the Manteca couple was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus likely contracted through community transmission. They spent nearly a month in complete isolation inside of their Manteca home. They were legally barred from going beyond their property line as the virus worked its way through their system.
During the 24 days of waiting, hoping, and praying that they don’t become another statistic as the virus became even more entrenched in the United States, the couple dealt with symptoms that presented them with an intensity unlike they’ve ever experienced before. It left them at times incapacitated and unable to even cook the meals that they needed to replenish their body.
It was the community at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church that helped them when they couldn’t help themselves.
“I take care of other people, so I’m not used to being on receiving end,” said Anita Handley, who works at a local retirement home. “There were days that I cried because of how much love people were giving us – we had people in their 80s and 90s that were dropping off cooked meals for us, and prayer chains that were praying for us all over the world.
“We’re blessed to be better, and we’re also blessed that we live in a community that took such good care of us and prayed for us.”
The saga all started in mid-March when Tom Handley came from work as a forklift driver in Livermore with a bit of a cough that simply wouldn’t go away.
Then came the fever and the other symptoms – nosebleeds, constipation, congestion, shortness of breath – and before too long Anita Handley started exhibiting some of the same signs.
She lost the ability to smell or taste anything. She had a headache that wouldn’t go away. The shortness of breath – a symptom that can become very dangerous in COVID-19 patients – never seemed to subside.
By the end of the month they went to Doctors Hospital of Manteca where they were tested for COVID-19. They found out shortly thereafter that they were both infected with the virus that has brought the world to a standstill in a way that hasn’t happened for more than a century.
“Initially they said that he (Tom) didn’t have a fever high enough to be hospitalized, and I’m blessed that he wasn’t because it would have been very difficult to go through this alone,” Anita Handley said. “We would be so weak that it would be difficult to get up and go to the bathroom.
“We listened to a lot of audiobooks on Audible and slept a lot because we were so exhausted – and if wasn’t for the people who brought us cooked meals I’m not sure that we would have been able to eat because we didn’t have the energy to cook anything on our own.”
The couple is still taking precautions even though they’ve been cleared to go back into society for more than a week. They make sure to mask up when they go out and are being careful about where they go and what they do despite the fact that they may have a natural immunity against being infected again.
Knowing what they went through, Handley wants to people to know that the virus is not like anything she’s ever had before – specifically, she said, it’s nothing like the flu – and said that she can’t understand why people aren’t taking it more seriously and heeding the warnings of healthcare experts that are just trying to prevent people from having what they had.
“I just want people to know how serious this is – it varies from person-to-person depending on your immune system, but people need to listen to the words of the experts because it’s very, very important,” Handley said. “We went through it and it’s nothing like the flu – these are symptoms that are a lot worse than flu symptoms. And I see people now that aren’t wearing masks and they aren’t following the guidelines and I just don’t get it.
“You can have this and not know it and I just want people to know – even young people – that this isn’t something that you want to go through.”
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.