A few weeks ago, Connecticut bilingual teacher Luciana Machado Lira received an unexpected phone call. Her 7-year-old student’s mother, whom she barely knew, was going into labor and urgently needed her help.

She asked Luciana, a mom herself, to call the student's mother's husband, who does not speak English. She also asked the teacher to visit her at the hospital. When Luciana met the spouse there, she learned of the family’s desperation: The mom was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus and had to have an emergency C-section to deliver her son prematurely. Her husband, although asymptomatic, guessed he had COVID-19 too.

Then came the biggest request of all. Afraid their newborn would contract the virus as well, the family asked Luciana if she would take the baby home with her, at least until the test results were ready.

Luciana accepted.

Joy Colon, Luciana’s friend, shared the story in a powerful Facebook post from April 17. It now has over 5.5K shares.

“My friend did what truly good people do. She said yes. I am certain, her answer would always have been yes. What went through her mind at that moment? Luciana went to that hospital that day to help and indeed, she did,” Joy wrote.

It was a good thing Luciana stepped up. A week later, the family’s test results revealed both the father and 7-year-old were also infected with the virus. “The newborn’s pediatrician praised her, noting that had the baby gone home the outcome could surely have been tragic,” Joy mentioned.