‘Feeling Fine’: Cullman couple keeping spirits up during coronavirus cruise quarantine

Published 2:25 pm Wednesday, March 11, 2020

By Amy Henderson
The Cullman Times

Cullman residents Len and June Brooks are seen Tuesday afternoon after boarding a plane after the cruise they had been on was quarantined.

Cullman’s Len and June Brooks are adventurers and love to travel, but they got a little bit more adventure than they bargained for when they embarked on a 15-day cruise to Hawaii aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship on Feb. 21. Two passengers and 19 crew members, tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and a passenger who’d been on board the ship just one week earlier later died from the virus.

Tuesday afternoon, the Brooks were off the ship and waiting in a bus to be taken to their next location when they spoke with the Times. Although it was reported they would likely be quarantined at Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia for two weeks, the couple said they had not yet received official word of their destination. “We’re going somewhere, but we don’t know where,” said June. Later, they texted that they’d boarded a plane with other cruise ship passengers and were told they’d be going to San Antonio, Texas. They later confirmed they would be at at Lackland Air Force Base for the next two weeks for testing and monitoring.
The retirees are well known locally; Len as a longtime former district attorney for Cullman County, and June as a legal instructor at Wallace State Community College.

June said when she booked the cruise, there were no cases of coronavirus in Hawaii or the United States at the time, and the cruise line was not accepting passengers with Chinese passports.

“We thought the risk would be relatively very low, but everybody’s at risk no matter where you are,” said June.

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The cruise got off to a great start. They had a great time exploring the islands, which they’d last visited with their sons — Josh, Brad, and Lee — in the 1980s. “We had a great time,” said June.

The cruise ship was headed back to the mainland when the information about the virus became known. “We were on the way back before anyone knew there was a problem,” said June. A California man had been on the boat the week before and later died from the virus. “He had been off the boat for a week before anyone realized there was a problem,” she said.

The news of the infection was “disconcerting,” said June. A tester from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was sent by helicopter to test passengers who had reported symptoms. “It was a total shock when we found out that 21 people had tested positive,” she said. She said she and Len have not had any symptoms of the virus, and are feeling well.

The cruise ship altered its route — skipping a scheduled stop in Mexico — to anchor off the coast near San Francisco, where it remained from March 4 until Monday. “We were all asked to stay in our staterooms,” said June. The Brooks passed their time by watching movies, participating in trivia games via closed-circuit television on the ship, and stepping out onto their balcony.

“One time some seals came out and were checking us out,” June said. “We adjusted well. Having a balcony was priceless.”

During their visit to Hawaii, they took hula and ukulele lessons. Len bought a ukulele and practiced while they were quarantined in their stateroom. “He’s quite good at it,” said June. “We made it fun even though we were confined.”

The two have kept up their spirits throughout their adventure and said the ship’s crew helped. “They went out of their way to make everything was taken care of: food, water, entertainment,” said Len.

He said this experience hasn’t caused them to change their minds about travel. “We have always liked an adventure, and we love to travel so I assume we’ll be back at it again soon enough,” he said.

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