Carnella Marks considers herself lucky.

She lives in Chico and has some masks left over from the Camp Fire a few years ago. She’s using them to try and make sure she doesn’t catch coronavirus or pass it along to her 71 year-old father-in-law Albert, who she cares for. He lives with Marks, her husband, and her thirteen-year-old twins.

Marks is an in-home support service (IHSS) worker in Butte County. Like many of the state’s half a million IHSS workers, she takes care of a family member.

Mark’s father-in-law has a severe case of Alzheimer’s. He also has heart and cholesterol problems. He was doing much worse before he came to live with them back in September.

“The doctors basically told us to go make funeral arrangements,” Marks said. Instead, she brought him back to her home in Chico and got to work.

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