Blocked From Visiting Husband, Wife Gets Creative

She runs a small company that helps people navigate health care bills, but Mary Daniel is also now working as a part-time dishwasher. But hers isn't a story about a struggle to pay the bills—it's about her desire to see her ailing husband. As USA Today explains, the 57-year-old Daniel took the part-time job at an assisted living facility in Florida because it was the only way she could visit her husband, Steve, a 66-year-old resident with early onset Alzheimer's. Steve has been living at the RoseCastle at Deerwood facility in Jacksonville since last July, and Mary visited him daily after he arrived. However, that changed on March 11, when the facility barred visitors because of coronavirus fears.

After being apart for 114 days and with no end in sight to the restrictions, Daniel worked with the center to find a creative solution. A couple of weeks ago, they offered her a twice-a-week dishwashing job with an unusual perk: She could spend time with her husband at the end of her shift. She immediately accepted. "It didn't matter what I had to do to get there," Daniel, the chief executive and founder of a company called ClaimMedic, tells the Washington Post. "I was willing to do whatever it took to fulfill my promise that I was going to be there for him every step of the way." (More uplifting news stories.)