Maurice Rowland (MR) and Miguel Alvarez (MA)

MR: There was about 16 residents left behind and we had a conversation in the kitchen, ”What are we going to do?”

MA: If we left, they wouldn’t have nobody. We were just the cook and the janitor but I was cleaning people up, help them take a bath.

MR: I was passing out meds. My original position was the cook but we had people that had, like, dementia. I just couldn’t see myself going home, next thing you know they’re in the kitchen trying to cook their own food and burn the place down. You know what I mean?

MA: I would only go home for one hour, take a shower, get dressed then be there for 24 hour days. MR: There’s people up three in the morning, walking around, and…

MA: Yeah, you couldn’t go to sleep. I’d bring movies from my house, let’s just watch this to three, four in the morning, then they’d go to sleep.

MR: Even though they wasn’t our family, they were kind of like our family for this short period of time.

MA: You know, you feel sad but you don’t want to show them you’re feeling like that, you know. My parents, when they were younger, they left me abandoned and, knowing how they are going to feel, I didn’t want them to go through that.

MR: I think you’re pretty strong for sticking in there.

MA: You too, Maurice.

MR: If I would’ve left, I think that would have been on my conscience for a very long time.