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Being overly cautious has become our new normal

Zitiello is thinking about the effects this pandemic is having on her grandkids who likely won't have a prom or walk across the stage at graduation.

During this COVID-19 crisis, we are all constantly being urged to be safe, wash your hands and practice social-distancing. Being overly cautious has become our new normal. 

And while not everyone is heeding the warnings of officials, there are many who are, not just for themselves but because of their loved ones.

Judith Zitiello of Champions for Hope and the JT Townsend Foundation is not just consumed by her charity work but also her very large family.

Zitiello is a mother of four and grandmother of nine. She was diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer in 2014 and currently has 13 tumors in her lungs but as the matriarch of her family, Zitello isn't just worried about herself. 

She's thinking about the effects this pandemic is having on her grandkids who are seniors and likely won't have a prom or get to walk across the stage at graduation. 

Her daughter who works in the ER, her son also in the medical field and her elderly mother who right now she can't hold in her arms.

"My mother is in a nursing home I can't go see her,” Zitiello said. “I have like every social situation you could possibly have to worry about. Everything is in God's control. I think we all need to press into our families. I think we've needed to do that for a long time. The great thing about this is we're cooking at home. We're eating at home. We're pressing in to our families. and gosh I think that was very much needed."

Credit: First Coast News

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