Josh Belser (JB) and Sam Dow (SD)

JB: Growing up the Ku Klux Klan actually flyered the neighborhood. We all got ’em on our doorstep. And you were a black kid in a white neighborhood but that morning, you knocked on my door and came up with the idea that we go around on bike and get all those flyers, so that, when people woke up in the morning, they didn’t have to wake up to that. 

SD: We got as many as we could, yeah. 

JB: You were somebody who did think about other people’s feelings.

SD: We’re both that way. I mean, I think you were always the guy that sticks up for the underdog, you know. 

JB: Looking back on it now, I’m not at all surprised that we both ended up working in healthcare. 

SD: Yeah.

JB: When did you realize COVID-19 was serious?

SD: My floor was one of the first that were converted to strictly dealing with COVID patients. Our jobs had to change like seemingly overnight. I mean, there was no dress rehearsal because the numbers just started to go up and then it was show time. And last week I had three patients that died in one twelve hour shift. So it’s definitely life-changingly real for me. 

JB: Yeah. The bravest of us right now is absolutely terrified. 

How are you dealing? How are you holding up?

SD: You know, me and my girlfriend were living together but, with the greater risk, I decided to move out by myself. I have a step-daughter also that I have not seen in… it’s going on three weeks now. So one of the hardest things is coming home and just being alone. 

JB: I wish I could be there with you, brother; I do.

SD: That means a lot from someone who is also in it. There’s definitely, like, a club that nobody wants to be in but we’re in it, you know. So I appreciate that, man.

JB: Thanks for 30 years of friendship. God willing there’ll be 30 something more. But if something were to happen to me, I think I’d like to be remembered as that guy who would give all for his friends and the people that he cared about and maybe even a complete stranger too.

SD: You know, there’s a quote from the French philosopher Albert Camus. He actually wrote a story about an epidemic. The main character, he was a doctor, and, uh, he says the way that you get through something like this is to be a decent person.” And, you know, somebody asks him “What makes someone a decent person?” He says, “I don’t know but, for me, it’s just doing my job the best way I can.” 

So hopefully I made a difference in people’s lives in a positive way. And um, you know, I guess that’s the best any of us can really hope for.