Saludacion Solon Fontanilla
51, Kentfield
Saludacion “Sally” Solon Fontanilla came from the Philippines and built a full life in the United States, traveling regularly with her husband and enjoying a community in their mutual workplace: St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley.
Fontanilla was born in the town of Tupi in the southern Philippines and began her nursing career soon after moving to the U. S. in 1993. She returned to her hometown every year, spending about a month each time reuniting with family and friends — including a high school buddy, Ben Fontanilla. The two had sat a couple of desks apart in class. They went to the movies and bowled together.
As they each neared 30, mutual friends started nudging them: “Hey, guys, you’re getting older, what do you think?” Ben recalled with a laugh. The pair married in 2000, at a wedding their friends arranged in the Philippine city of General Santos.
After three years in a long- distance marriage, Ben finally joined Sally in Victorville. Though she’d been in the U. S. for a decade, she waited for him to arrive so they could decide together which house and car to purchase.
Trained as a lawyer, Ben went back to school for nursing and soon landed a job at St. Mary, where his wife had been working since 1997. They adjusted easily to their new life together, making friends and developing a work family.
Sally worked the night shift in the telemetry unit, where patients are often in critical condition and need constant monitoring. Her team was the first at St. Mary assigned to care for COVID- 19 patients, and Sally piled on layers of personal protective equipment before doling out medication, food and other care to infected patients. Sally initially took some time off work when the pandemic started, but the veteran nurse couldn’t stay away too long. Her professional calling was too great, and her patients needed her, so she returned to work in July.
Haley Lampman, a nurse who worked alongside Sally, said she was always “super happy.”
“Even at the end of her shift, even at the end of 12 hours, she was always joyful,” Lampman said. “Her patients always felt that.”
It was at the end of one of those shifts that Sally began to feel sick. She came home with a low- grade fever and cough. Ben took her the next day to St. Mary’s emergency room, where she was tested for the virus and soon hospitalized.
Tethered to a ventilator for almost two months, the 51- year- old died of COVID- 19 on Oct. 5 at the hospital where she had worked for 23 years.
“These cases of COVID are real for front- line workers like us,” Ben said.
Co- workers in Sally’s tightknit work community gathered to release a bouquet of colorful balloons, etched with heartfelt messages: Miss you forever. Love you always. We will never forget you. We will remember you every single day.
“I guess you don’t realize how tight you are with your work family until you experience something like this,” Lampman said, “and I think everybody kind of came together at the end and realized how much we mean to each other.”
That extended work family continues to embrace Ben, who would have celebrated his 20- year anniversary with Sally in December. As a married couple, the two took trips almost every spring and autumn, including visits to see the cherry blossoms in Washington, D. C., and the leaves change in New York. They had planned an Alaskan cruise this spring, before the pandemic shut everything down.
Ben, who continues to work at St. Mary, is transitioning into another new life, this one without Sally.
“I have friends, close friends that are supporting me. Sometimes they come in and bring me some food, stuff like that,” Ben said. “Basically, I’m all alone in the house because there [ were] just two of us.”