(CNN) As the coronavirus pandemic intensified, Leilani Jordan insisted on going to her job as a clerk at a Maryland grocery so she could help seniors, her mother said.

She had challenges of her own, as a worker with cerebral palsy. But as shoppers around the country raided shelves for necessities in early to mid-March, Jordan wanted to make sure the elderly got theirs.

Leilani Jordan

"It's just crazy here at work ... but somebody's got to do it," Jordan said, according to her mother, Zenobia Shepherd. "I've got to help the older people."

"She was doing everything for them: Helping them put their groceries in their walkers, to helping them get into lifts," Shepherd said.

Then the 27-year-old became sick.

Read More