54: Januaria Arriola

Housekeeping, Highlands Retirement Community

Januaria B. Arriola works first shift housekeeping at a retirement community, where she has been working for one year. Her job did not change due to the pandemic, so much as it became a lot more rigorous. Sanitizing is more important than ever, and they need to do much deeper cleans much more frequently. They were also frequently short staffed, because any of her coworkers that tested positive for COVID needed to stay home. It was really challenging for her just to cope with what was happening while also keeping up with all of the changes, complying with all the new protocol, and doing her best to keep herself and everyone around her safe. She worries so much for the residents because they are such a vulnerable population. She loves her job because of all the people there. They are like family to her, which made it especially devasting when several of the residents passed away. 

Januaria is so grateful that none of her family got COVID, but she feels keenly for those who got sick or who lost loved ones.  Her son is a microbiologist at the Smithsonian Institute in D.C, and she was incredibly worried for him living in such a big city, especially since he had bad allergies when he was young. But thankfully, he was able to work from home and never got sick. Both of her daughters also work in hospitals, she was incredibly worried about them, praying every day for their health. 

One thing that Januaria has observed is that a lot of people have come closer together because of these unfortunate circumstances. Many people’s priorities and perspectives have shifted, and she hopes that these changes are permanent, that people can try to be kinder and more respectful as a whole. She believes that peace and respect should come naturally to people, and that people need to love each other no matter what.