coronavirus

Five Young Children Lose Both Parents to COVID-19

The heartache is felt in Rialto where both graduated high school.

Courtesy of the Macias family

Five children including a newborn are without both parents after their mother and father died of COVID-19.

Terri Serey described her sister in law, Davy Macias, a nurse at Kaiser Permanente Fontana, as a super mom.

"She went to work, came home and every bit of her day revolved around her kids," she said.

Pregnant and unvaccinated, Macias died last month. But thankfully her newborn survived.

"We call her baby girl Macias because she doesn't have a name," Serey said.

She says for several weeks since Macias' death, they have been waiting for her husband Daniel to name their fifth child.

But he had also been fighting COVID-19 in the ICU and died Thursday

The children are at their grandparents' house still asking for "mommy and daddy," Serey said.

The heartache is felt in Rialto where both graduated high school.

Daniel followed in his mother's footsteps and became a teacher at William Jehue Middle School, which is across the street from the school where his mother used to teach before recently retiring.

"Our staff and students are just heartbroken with the loss of Mr. Macias," said Carolyn Eide, the principal.

He was an eighth grade math teacher and math coach for nearly 20 years.

"Very intelligent, able to look at complex situations, break them down to solutions that made sense," Eide said.

It's why he was also Jehue's AVID coordinator, helping students prepare for college.

He was also a major reason why Jehue is an award-winning school.

"His legacy will live on in the students, the thousands of students that he taught quality instruction to," said Syeda Jafri, a Rialto Unified School District spokeswoman. "It is something we have to look at in the sense of life is very short and it's very unpredictable.

"This pandemic is not over and this is a virus that does not discriminate."

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