Little Adrianna, Uncle Dan and our year of COVID-19
Baby Adrianna made her arrival into the world three weeks early on a snow-swept day in Connecticut. It was Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020, just hours after the U.S. started screening air passengers for signs of COVID-19.
Three days later, one of the grimmest chapters in history would touch down in this country. The first case of a novel coronavirus was confirmed in a person who had recently returned to Washington state from Wuhan, China.
No one could have imagined Adrianna’s first year of life
Her doting uncle, 30-yearold personal trainer Dan Spano, died two months after she was born — one of the few young people to fall victim to an illness that has taken thousands of lives in the state, hundreds of thousands across the country and millions worldwide.
Now, she lights up a room the way the uncle she will never know once did. “She doesn’t know how much we needed her,” said mom Melissa Castiglia.
She loves to dance, clap her hands, play peek-aboo. And that laugh, “you just can’t help but laugh with her,” Melissa said with a chuckle.
A huge Baby Shark fan — doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo — who takes great pleasure playing with her little Mercedes car. An inquisitive one-year-old, touching everything from the dog’s water bowl to the household plants. Nothing is off limits.
Adrianna has her dad’s eyes and her mom’s curls. Her bright personality and energy? Melissa saw that in her little brother, her only brother, who died on April 11 last year after a battle with COVID-19. “I do see him in her too,” Melissa, 32, recalls of Dan, who lived in Norwalk.
Adrianna is the reason Melissa had to get out of bed in the depths of her mourning. “She has saved me, and I think she saved my parents too,” Melissa said.
The family’s journey during the last year reflects what we’ve all been through. Fear, devastation, learning a new way to live, loss and rebirth, finding
joy in the hopeful light of a baby’s face. We see that cycle everywhere: in our personal lives, as we work to earn a living, as we shop, eat, find entertainment, in our politics and in the way we deliver and consume health care.
It is the new normal. The new normal for Melissa and her husband, Kevin, 35, is “there’s somebody missing.” But there is solace, Melissa said, in knowing “his death has helped a lot of people.” Her family takes great comfort in their ability to have shared their experiences, raise awareness and help others.
The road has been long and hard. Along the way, her father also contracted COVID-19. Learning of his
positive test was devastating after what they had already been through. “Thank God he didn’t get it to the extent my brother did,” she said. Her father went on to recover.
Melissa, who lives in Ridgefield, has also since returned to the classroom, helping kids to learn and keep them safe as a special education teacher at an elementary school in Stamford. Teachers, of course, have been at the heart of a push-and-pull battle to get back to normality, safely, during a pandemic.
“I feel like I am doing everything I can to be safe,” she said of teaching at school, where she methodically wipes surfaces down, wears a mask — but also at home, where she
changes her clothes and washes her hands thoroughly before an embrace of security with Adrianna.
We’re all doing what we can and Adrianna’s first year, one year since that first U.S. case, also gives us hope. Much has changed. A vaccine, better treatment to save more people, preparedness, awareness. And we’ve seen unimaginable heroics and humanity.
Today, Hearst Connecticut Media Group’s eight daily newspapers and websites look back at some incredible examples of this in The Road Home. This section includes a look back at the full edition of our papers on May 3, “The Road Ahead: Life After COVID-19.”
It was in The Road Ahead that I first spoke with Melissa. She called on people to be better through this crisis, together.
Dozens of reporters, columnists and guest experts have examined how far we have come, where we were and what future could lie ahead.
1 We catch up with medical professionals who were in the headlines after they held up a sign: “We stay here for you. Please stay home for us.” They talk about unity, and their call to #CrushCovid.
1 Guest contributors explore pressing questions, such as: Can my employer force me to disclose my vaccination status?
1 Experts predict what life will look like in health and lifestyle, including areas such as sports.
1 A former top policy maker examines the rise in violent crime during the pandemic: What needs to be done to address public safety, community policing. 1 Our investigations team reports on nursing homes in the state, taking a close look at inspection issues.
Business owners talk 1 about struggling to stay afloat, but also about thriving due to community support.
1 A pharmacist shares: “Many of my patients have passed away” because of reduced interaction and care during quarantine.
1 Patients tell of their “absolute agony for days,” but also their recovery and a new tomorrow.
A year ago, the words 1 “quarantine” and “mask” would have brought to mind a much different picture. Illustrator Ally Rzesa has a take on word trends.
1 We talk with the first couple vaccinated, a doctor and a nurse on the front lines.
1 After a “wildly successful” vaccine development, the Yale dean of public health talks about the slow rollout and what we need to make it work better.
Our newsrooms are committed to bringing readers this vital public health information. It is our honor to keep you informed during what has been an immensely challenging time. It is also our ambition to share stories of promise, hope. I hope you agree The Road Home does exactly that.