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Indira Rossetto
Thousands of lives have been lost in the coronavirus outbreak, in cities and small towns, in hospital wards and nursing homes. The virus has moved across California, killing the old and the young, the infirm and the healthy.
Some patterns have emerged. Large metropolitan centers such as Los Angeles and San Francisco appear to be the hardest hit. More than 63 thousand people have died in California. These are some of their stories, reported by Los Angeles Times staffers and six interns here through partnerships with the Pulitzer Center and USC.
Michael Ayala retired from the California Highway Patrol in 2009 after putting in 30 years. But he never really stopped working. He just shifted his focus to his church and local civic groups around his Sonora home, filling needs, lending his time, getting things done.
Born in Burlingame and raised in San Bruno, Ayala married his high school sweetheart Nancy in 1974 in Long Beach and joined the Highway Patrol five years later. Though that choice of vocation was made with an eye toward stability, Ayala soon realized that law enforcement was a good fit for his leadership and problem-solving skills. During his career, he served as a patrolman and sergeant, retiring as a lieutenant commander in Sonora.
Ayala then shifted gears, stepping in to be the executive director of the Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce for three years when the organization was struggling. Ayala also was active with the Kiwanis Club and Sierra Bible Church in Sonora. Possessing a personality as big as his heart, he was known and liked by just about everyone in the small community.
As researchers searched for weapons against the virus in 1954, 6-year-old Penny and her 8-year-old brother Jim joined thousands of boys and girls in an 11-state medical trial, receiving an injection that included either the new vaccine or a placebo.
By April 1955, when Jonas Salk's approved polio vaccine was shipped nationwide, Penny had lost use of her legs, with both arms severely weakened. Their father later told the children that she had received the placebo.
But she retained determination, wit and patience enough to earn a college degree, marry, raise children and work 35 years for Fresno County and Fresno's Community Regional Medical Center, helping connect people with services.
In all, three of the seven Miller children would contract polio, posing steep challenges for their parents, a newspaperman and a nurse. Penny's case was the most severe, requiring long hospital stays, several surgeries and the implantation of steel rods to keep her spine straight.
But she emerged strong enough to attend school alongside Erick, a year younger. From seventh grade to the end of 12th grade at Hoover High School in Fresno, he pushed her wheelchair from class to class. Both earned top marks.
Her sister Joanna Miller Hoffman of Simi Valley remembers Penny braving risky rides at the Fresno County Fair, sneaking out for a midnight swim at a community pool, and bucking her father's wishes in order to attend rock concerts with a boyfriend.
She also learned to drive a specially outfitted van; campaigned for the rights of people with disabilities; and began work for Fresno County, first in social services, later helping hospital patients get help and handle paperwork.
Her first marriage didn't last long. After it dissolved, her sister Joanna recalled, "she was a single working mother with a baby. And yet I'd go to see her at her house, and her house was cleaner than I was keeping my apartment."
In 1986, Josh's mother married Robert Foreman, gave birth to a daughter and became stepmother to six children from her husband's previous marriage. And she continued working. The family home in Clovis was busy.
Still, on many weekends and holidays Foreman steered her van toward Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Disneyland or the Ventura County coast, a couple of kids aboard. Later, she'd often join one or two sisters for museum exhibits, theater or concerts in Los Angeles.
Foreman is survived by daughter Holly Foreman of Fresno, son Josh Coddington of Phoenix, granddaughter Quinn Coddington; stepchildren Erik, Joel, Jacob, Michael and Paul Foreman and Amber Benoy; and siblings Jim Miller, Erick Miller, Alan Miller, Matt Miller, Laurie Mobley and Joanna Miller Hoffman.
Ye also took pride in his cooking skills, impressing the pharmacy department at potlucks with dishes he mastered as a professional cook for the San Diego Yacht Club. Ye studied psychology at San Diego Miramar College, and graduated from Mira Mesa High School, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Entering UCLA in 1963, he played two sports. As a defensive end on the "Gutty Little Bruins" football teams led by Heisman winner Gary Beban, he competed for national championships. He co-captained the 1968 team.
At Mom's, a Westwood dancing spot, Lepisto met 21-year-old Sue Henderson in 1970. A brief courtship was interrupted by his desire to explore Europe before marriage. A month into the expedition, he called, and she answered. She joined him in Rome, where he proposed.
Upon learning that 10 witness signatures would be required at the American Embassy, they took a ferry to Athens and found an American church whose minister's prime concern seemed to be the odds of the union lasting.
After 14 years as a Los Angeles County probation officer, Lepisto retired to go into teaching. At El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, he taught physical education and coached cross country and track for another 14 years.
He is remembered for "his kindness, selflessness, loyalty, determination, and love for his family," said his son Garrett. "Vic gave his all to others, always putting them ahead of himself and celebrating the success of those around him."
The Rev. Frederick K.C. Price, a televangelist who founded the Crenshaw Christian Center, a South Los Angeles megachurch with a 10,000-seat sanctuary, died Friday from COVID-19. He was 89. His family said he had been in the hospital suffering from the virus infection for the last five weeks.
The church has a school and a youth center, hosts food and blood drives, and does prison outreach. It employs about 150 people. At times, the church has boasted membership of 28,000, a number the family says encompasses parishioners throughout its history.
Price Jr. said that before the pandemic, the church had a congregation of roughly 6,000 people, a number that he estimates has grown massively during COVID-19 lockdown, with online videos reaching 20,000 to 30,000 viewers.
Missing from the scene was their fourth son, Ismael Rivera, who watched the final moments of the ceremony on his phone while standing outside a restaurant in Tijuana. Jesimiel Rivera, the third son, held his phone over the grave as his brother sobbed on the other end of the Zoom call.
The second of the four siblings, Isaac, had not been able to see his parents for almost a decade. He had been counting down to the summer of 2021 when he would no longer be banned from the United States and could request a visa to visit his family. His parents were not legally in the U.S. and could not cross south to see him.
The brothers cannot cross the border to console with Isaac without also becoming stuck outside of the U.S., though the three are protected for now by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which grants work permits and temporary protection from deportation to undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.
In 2011, the year before the program was created, Isaac was stopped at one of the Border Patrol checkpoints that are scattered across the southwestern United States and ended up voluntarily returning to Mexico. Because of U.S. immigration laws, he was barred from coming back for at least 10 years.
Vidal immigrated to the United States when he was 14. He worked the fields, climbed power poles to fix cables, and finally arrived at QueensCare Health Centers in East Los Angeles as a security officer.
After the family had dinner together, Vidal would take a shower and grab his favorite Spanish language newspaper, La Opinin. On his days off, Vidal would kick his feet up, sitting on the porch with coffee and cigarette, and spend hours poring over the newspaper.
On May 29, Richard felt mild symptoms of COVID-19, with a headache and a runny nose. He self-quarantined for four days at home and got a positive test result on June 4. On the same day, Vidal also tested positive, after losing his sense of smell and taste.
The first employee infected in an outbreak at a dementia care facility in West Los Angeles, Bruner-Ringo called and texted colleagues that subsequently fell ill, encouraging them daily to keep a good attitude and reassuring them that they were all going to be OK.
Growing up in Oklahoma, Bruner-Ringo saw a nursing career as a kind of birthright. Her mother and grandmother were nurses, and her personality was a natural fit for the field: Upbeat, empathetic and helpful.
Kim Bruner-Ringo told The Times her daughter said the man arrived with symptoms of COVID-19, including fever and coughing. The Silverado has denied this and provided medical records indicating he was asymptomatic when Bruner-Ringo initially examined him.
In any case, he was so sick the next day that an ambulance rushed him to Cedars-Sinai where he was diagnosed with COVID-19. In the weeks and months that followed, 89 other residents and staff contracted the disease. Thirteen would die.
William Minnis spent the last several years at the Morton Bakar Center, a skilled nursing facility in Hayward. He stayed up late, surfing the Internet on his iPad learning more about astronauts and space travel and the cosmos. He adored music, too, especially classic rock from the 1960s.
In more ways than one, Rutledge and his wife were the perfect match. While their children remember their mother as the energetic, strict one in the house, Rutledge was the calm, steady presence who kept the family in balance.
When Norma died five years ago, Rutledge moved from their San Leandro home, eventually landing at Oakmont Senior Living in Folsom, where he contracted COVID-19. In mid-April, after the first case erupted at the home, almost all residents were tested. Rutledge, along with 17 other residents and three staff members, tested positive.
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