FORT WORTH, Texas — George Sanders just wanted to see Hawaii.
“Hawaii was the last one of my 50 states I visited, so it’s a trip to remember now,” he said.
But he’d rather forget the trip he’s taken, which started when he and his wife Marilyn went on the Grand Princess cruise ship. After 21 people on board were diagnosed with COVID 19, the couple was quarantined and eventually sent to Lackland Air Force Base.
Both are in isolation now because out of 149 people taken to the base, George was the only one who tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
“People come to the door and I have to wear a mask,” Marilyn said.
“They’re taking all my vitals three times a day, every day: my temperature, my blood pressure,” George said.
As a senior with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), he was initially worried but hasn’t noticed a big change in his breathing. He believes it may be because he’s struggled with it for a long time and is always on oxygen.
“I don’t even use my portable oxygen, I use theirs, and I use it almost 24/7,” Sander said. “I have not felt sick but that’s not everybody, you know.”
“We know that he’s in the best place,” Marilyn said. “He couldn’t get any better medical treatment than he does here.”
Marilyn and George feel lucky to be have the care they do and the technology they do, talking from separate isolation rooms seven times a day and able to communicate with their children. Marilyn says the first thing she’ll do when she gets home to Flower Mound is hug their grandchildren.
“It’s sort of bizarre, it is. It’s a strange thing,” Marilyn said. “I brought two books out of a series of four. I should have brought them all.”
They’ve been isolated in their cabin and now these rooms for more a week combined.
RELATED: Life under quarantine: Passenger from Grand Princess cruise ship speaks from Lackland Air Force Base
George is working through his favorite cowboy shows.
“This one station here, that’s all they have 24/7, so I’m catching up,” he joked.
They agree with decisions to cut back on group gatherings over concerns about spreading the coronavirus.
George is told he’ll be immune now, and in a little more than a week, he and his wife can head home and finally end the adventure they never wanted.
“It is what it is,” he said. "There’s nothing we can do about it.”
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