There is no shortage of heroes during the coronavirus pandemic that has upended all of our lives over the past few months.
Rhonda Gladieux, a Respiratory Therapist at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center is one such hero. She'll never say so herself, however.
"It's hard to picture myself as a hero, or my team, because we're doing what we do every day. We're doing what we're meant to do, we're doing we're trained to do,” said Gladieux.
Although she says she doesn't feel like a hero, you'd likely hear the opposite from many in our community. Gladieux works 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, along with her fellow coworkers
"Taking care of them and working together and trying to make a difference in these patients' lives, and hoping that we can make a difference and we can figure out something. We are always trying to figure out, did we miss something, is there something more we can do, is there something different we can try,” said Gladieux.
Even on the worst days, she reminds herself of her oath, to take care of her sick patients but she admits some days are harder than others.
"Some days are emotionally harder than others. Everybody is making sacrifices and I appreciate each and every one of them and all the sacrifices that they're making," said Gladieux. "We as therapists, have not been home with our families, we've been staying in separate places because we don't wanna expose our families. Moms haven't been with their children they haven't been able to hug their kids in a long time."
With Mother's Day on Sunday, Gladieux, who's a mom herself, says she's having trouble staying away from her family but it's a sacrifice she's willing to make to protect her loved ones.
"Mother's Day is hard because we would be with my grandchildren and I would be with my own mom, and I haven't been able to be with her, or my grandkids, so it's gonna be a different Mother's Day," said Gladieux. "I do have to think that it's a small sacrifice made because at least I'm still here with my grandkids and I can still see them when this could be a really hard Mother's Day for a lot of other people that are going through their own struggles and with their family members still sick in the hospital."
We also want to hear from you, who is your Frontline Hero? You can click here to nominate someone you're proud of who is working on the frontlines of this pandemic.