{"id":49487,"date":"2021-01-05T05:03:06","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T12:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/nursing-home-newlyweds-in-durango-keep-spirits-up-amid-coronavirus-pandemic\/"},"modified":"2021-01-05T12:03:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T12:03:06","slug":"nursing-home-newlyweds-in-durango-keep-spirits-up-amid-coronavirus-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/nursing-home-newlyweds-in-durango-keep-spirits-up-amid-coronavirus-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Nursing home newlyweds in Durango keep spirits up amid coronavirus pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Carla
Carla Vigil Shoub and her husband, Don Shoub, residents of Four Corners Health Care Center, said in June they just wanted the world to get back to normal. The couple spent most of their first year of marriage under strict public health restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The first year of marriage for Carla Vigil Shoub and Don Shoub has been anything but a blissful, extended honeymoon.<\/p>\n

The couple fell in love at Four Corners Health Care Center in Durango, which has become the site of the largest COVID-19 outbreak in La Plata County. As of Monday, 94 residents, including the married couple, and 53 staff members had contracted the disease, according to San Juan Basin Public Health. Twenty-two residents have died.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it\u2019s OK to die, but it\u2019s not our time yet,\u201d Carla Vigil Shoub said Thursday in an interview with The Durango Herald<\/em>. \u201cI love him so much, and I want to enjoy him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love her so much, and I want to enjoy her,\u201d Don Shoub said in response.<\/p>\n

\"Don
Don Shoub and Carla Vigil Shoub, both residents at Four Corners Health Care Center, were preparing to move into the same room in December 2019. The move proved to be more important than expected in 2020, when nursing home residents had to be confined to their rooms at times during the coronavirus pandemic.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Don
Don Shoub and Carla Vigil Shoub, both residents at Four Corners Health Care Center, showed off their wedding rings in December 2019 days after getting married.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Shoubs, who were married Dec. 5, 2019, have spent most of their first year as newlyweds quarantined in the same room.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to be married and happy, going places and enjoying each other,\u201d said Carla Vigil Shoub, who tries to have a positive attitude. \u201cWe\u2019re still enjoying each other, but the COVID disease is awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple met in the hallways of the nursing home<\/a> when Carla Vigil Shoub, 53, who has cerebral palsy, tried to pass Don Shoub, 72, both in wheelchairs.<\/p>\n

They fell in love while staying up late watching movies and bonding over bands like The Bangles and Queen. They even went to prom together at the Tim Tebow Foundation\u2019s Night to Shine event.<\/p>\n

They had months of married life before long-term care facilities around the country halted regular activities<\/a> in response to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Social activities were canceled, and dining halls closed. Visits from family and friends were halted and\/or limited.<\/p>\n

It was rough, the couple said. They understood the restrictions: older populations and those with existing health conditions can have more severe cases of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

But they haven\u2019t been able to get out of their beds and into wheelchairs most of the days, said Christine Mullholand, Don\u2019s sister, saying the facility was short-staffed.<\/p>\n

Mullholand was most grateful the couple got married before the pandemic started so they could be housed in the same room. (Staff members had pushed together their beds so they could hold hands and watch TV, she said.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are amazing. I mean, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d do too well with my husband in a room, not being able to get out,\u201d Mullholand said, laughing.<\/p>\n

In early December, Carla Vigil Shoub and Don Shoub both tested positive for COVID-19. By January, their appetites weren\u2019t good, and the food didn\u2019t taste right. But the couple were back in their original room and doing OK, they said.<\/p>\n

Throughout the pandemic and the outbreak, the couple have been able to keep an upbeat attitude, said Mullholand and Hank Vigil, Carla\u2019s brother.<\/p>\n

But they also worry about a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus, the nursing home\u2019s air purifying system, and side effects from the vaccine.<\/p>\n

The couple were mourning two people close to them, a cousin and friend, who died recently. They said the deaths might have been caused by the disease, but they were not certain.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven what they\u2019re facing \u2013 and they do get scared and sometimes they cry \u2013 they just try to look at the bright side of it. And they have each other. That is so important that they have each other,\u201d Mullholand said.<\/p>\n

\"Carla
Carla Vigil Shoub and her husband, Don Shoub, sit together at Four Corners Health Care Center in Durango in October. The couple got married after falling in love in the nursing home shortly before the coronavirus struck the United States.<\/span>Courtesy of Christine Mullholand<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A seemingly simple thing, a lost cellphone charger, separated the couple from their families during a difficult time. The unit has a portable phone, but it isn\u2019t always available. Because they couldn\u2019t leave their rooms and had little phone access, Carla Vigil Shoub has not been able to speak with her mother who lives in the same facility, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I want my phone charger so bad, because I want to be able to talk to family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mixed in with their worries were bright spots. Shoub talked about their Christmas presents: homemade cookies, fudge and a coloring book. They looked forward to watching \u201cStar Trek\u201d and \u201cThe Carol Burnett Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were able to spend some time in their wheelchairs and start physical therapy, which felt more normal, the couple said. They urged people to take the vaccine and focused on being positive about new possibilities in the new year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to get through this and be happy,\u201d Carla Vigil Shoub said.<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

of marriage marred by illness, lockdown and death<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,28,445],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49487"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}