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For mothers on the front lines in the fight against the coronavirus, working from home is not always possible. These women fill crucial roles from doctors and nurses, to emergency response and public safety, to keeping the supply chain moving. As much as all our lives have changed in the last few months, the situation would be much worse if not for their sacrifice.

For Mother’s Day 2020, we visited with some of these moms as they cope with the dual demands of motherhood and public service.

Physician Gianina Best, 36, works in the emergency department of PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield. Her husband, Dr. William Emerson, who she’s known since the sixth grade, also works at the hospital. They grew up in Georgia and started dating in college. They settled in Eugene three years ago to raise their family, children Maya, 3 years old, and Julius, 1.

Of life since the pandemic began? “The whole world was quite fearful when all of this started. I worried about going to work and bringing this virus home to my family,” said Best as her children played in their north Eugene back yard.

The couple agreed to some protocols early on in the coronavirus outbreak: heightened vigilance at work in using personal protective equipment; a change of clothes at the hospital before the drive home; leaving even those clothes in the garage on arrival, followed by a quick shower while the other spouse distracts the children, all before settling in for the evening. They rarely leave the house otherwise.

They recently bought a play set for the kids to make up for missed play dates, and they are planting their first vegetable garden in a raised bed in the back yard. Daughter Maya excitedly named the plants that will soon be placed in soil as the family enjoyed a sunny day last week — cucumbers, squash, cherry tomatoes and strawberries, among others.

“Sometimes I would find myself pulling into the parking lot at work with tears in my eyes,” Best said. “But, I want to pass along to my children that even when we are fearful, it is important to be there for other people. That is a really important lesson that I want to pass along to them.”

Betty Lou Monson, 34, is a paramedic with Eugene Springfield Fire. She is married to Springfield police officer Shawn Monson. They have three children, Josie Mae, 5, and 2-year-old twins, son Cellyn and daughter Quinn.

Betty Lou Monson has been with the fire department since 2007. “I started volunteering right out of high school. I thought I wanted to be a nurse. Somebody from Springfield Fire invited me to do a ride along and I went into paramedic school at Lane Community College instead.”

The couple have been able to keep the children in a day care for first responders and continue to work their shifts. Monson jokes that not a lot has changed despite the dangers of the coronavirus. “I am not a touchy feely person anyway, so the running joke at the station is that 6 feet has always been my standard. Now everyone is on my turf.”Monson admits to being a germaphobe. “We have procedures at the station — cleaning our medic unit and showering after calls. I wear the proper personal protection equipment so I don’t bring it (the virus) home to my family. My mom and my dad are big parts of our lives, and I don’t want to bring it home to them either.”

The biggest change has been avoiding trips with her children to stores, visiting with other children or going to playgrounds. “I just tell my oldest daughter that there are germs and that we all have to be safe so we don’t get sick or make anyone else, like her grandparents, sick,” she added.

Does Monson harbor any second thoughts about her chosen profession given the reality of a pandemic? “We know coming into this job that we risk our lives every day. We may not come home. That is the risk that we take, when we signed up. I wouldn’t trade this job for the world.”

Melissa Smith, 30, has been a patrol officer with the Springfield Police Department for five years. Her family at home is her husband Richard Smith, a detective with the Lane County Sheriff’s Office, and their 1-year-old daughter, Emlyn.

Of her job, Smith said, “I am one of those people who likes adrenaline rushes. I like to be active. I like talking to people. Every day is different, we are not just sitting around the office all day.”She and her husband have contrasting work schedules, and with the help of family who live nearby, the couple is able to make their family life work.

“There are nights I wish I could be there putting her to bed, but I work four days on and four off, so I get to be there during my off days.”Out on the street, Smith has fielded a variety of questions from members of the community who wonder if police are enforcing stay-at-home orders. The answer? No. And traffic laws? Yes.

While she doesn’t know where it came from, some people engaged in criminal activity she has met were under the impression that police are not allowed to contact them. She wants the public to know that the department is responding to calls normally.

Overall, she credits the community for its support. People have donated masks and meals among other items and expressed concern for her safety when she is out on patrol. All things considered, Smith feels that she and her fellow officers are doing pretty well.

Katy Houghton, 38, is a dialysis technician at Fresenius Medical Care in Eugene. She meets patients when they arrive at the clinic and oversees their treatment.

“There is no way that dialysis can stop because of a quarantine,” said Houghton as her children played in a grassy area near their home in Eugene.

Houghton’s clinic has systems in place for contingencies ranging from power failures to natural disasters. They have even put together a separate quarantine clinic for use in case they have a patient with an active case of COVID-19. “Fortunately, we have not had to use it yet,” she added.

Everyone at the clinic is using full personal protection equipment all the time. The clinic elected to close the clinic to family members and friends of the patients. “Dialysis patients rely a lot on their systems of support, so not having them there is stressful,” Houghton said. “We as caregivers feel that stress for them.”

Houghton’s husband, Bruce Houghton Jr., has been caring for the children, 7-year-old Gabriel and 3-year-old Gracie, as a stay-at-home dad, freeing Houghton to concentrate on work as best she can. Gabriel has been homeschooling with his teacher over the internet app Zoom, but she admitted that “keeping his mind in school mode is a challenge.”

The children are both aware of the virus. Gabriel had to cancel his birthday party and a field trip. But, according to Houghton, he was very grown up about it, saying he “didn’t want anyone to get that nasty virus.” He did ask her to check his breathing one day, however.

Even daughter Gracie is aware of what is going on. She coughed one day, but quickly offered reassurance, saying brightly, “Don’t worry Momma, I don’t have coronavirus!” to the rest of the family’s amusement.

Asked how she is holding up, Houghton admitted that at first she was nervous to go to work. For a while, “coronavirus was in your face.” She resolved early on to take whatever precautions she could to avoid bringing it home to her family. The new normal for her is straight to the shower after work. “I’m like those memes on the internet, hose me down please!” she joked.

Dr. Katie Ready, 33, is an emergency department doctor at Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield. She met her husband Robert Ready, a professor of finance at the University of Oregon, while she was going to medical school in Rochester, New York. They moved to Eugene in 2017 and have a 17-month-old son, Colin.

“Being a parent is incredibly rewarding. It is fun to watch them grow and learn,” Katie Ready said. But she admits that being a mother is not what she expected. “You see other people with their kids and you only see a snapshot,” she said with a laugh.

“We started day care in September. That was so nice, both for him because he was around other kids, and for us. With the pandemic, day care has stopped and now we are back to juggling between the two of us,” she said. “With me working at the hospital, it is hard to expose babysitters or other people in your life, so we have been pretty isolated. It has been hard and exhausting.”

But she feels that Colin is at a fortunate age to be going through this. “He likes to read books and play basketball, so for him, life is great. He is so innocent and happy all the time. He is such a bright spot in our lives,” she said.

For Ready and her fellow health care workers, a lot has changed since January. “It kind of snuck up on us,” she said of the pandemic. “We were told everything was OK and suddenly it wasn’t OK.” When the first patient died locally, “That was nerve wracking. I was all of a sudden thinking, ‘Are we going to start turning into New York City?’” she said.

In a routine shared by many health care workers, Ready goes to great lengths to avoid contaminating her family. She leaves all of her work clothes at the hospital, changes into travel clothes for the trip home and then changes again in the garage before heading straight to the shower.

Despite it all, Ready sees much to celebrate in how the community has responded to the crisis. She gives credit to community leadership and her neighbors for stopping the spread of the virus here. “I think our governor was proactive. The people of Eugene and Springfield are respectful of each other. You see them wearing masks and giving space. I think it is the people in the community who have made the difference in stopping the spread of the virus.”

Vickie Martin, 49, is the emergency services nurse manager at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Springfield. She moved to Junction City for the job three years ago from South Carolina. Her husband, Chris Martin, is a paramedic with Western Lane Ambulance District.

Miranda Perrigan, 22, followed in her mother’s footsteps to become a nurse as well. Perrigan took a job with McKenzie-Willamette nine months ago and works as a nurse in the critical care unit. After Perrigan gave birth to son Wyatt, she and her husband, Dylan Perrigan, moved to Junction City to be closer to family. Dylan Perrigan just got out of the Marines and is taking classes remotely through Lane Community College.

Along with looking forward to Mother’s Day, the family will be celebrating Wyatt’s first birthday this weekend. The younger couple is searching for a home of their own, but the pandemic has tightened the housing market considerably. Looking on the bright side, Perrigan added, “It is nice that we are quarantined together and not quarantined apart.” One benefit of everyone’s different work schedules is that there is always one of the four adults in the house available to take care of Wyatt.

Both Martin and Perrigan are in the thick of things in their respective jobs but would not think of doing anything else. “I have been in emergency nursing for 16 years,” Martin said. “My daughter is used to the health care lifestyle. She grew up thinking it was normal to work nights, days, holidays, and miss birthdays, sporting events and all of that.”

While raising a young child in the middle of a pandemic has its challenges, Perrigan says being a mom has been “amazing.” It is hard to leave him when it is time to go to work, but she finds nursing so rewarding. Of her relationship with her mother, she says, “It has all come full circle for me. Now that I am a mom, I can see all the things that my mom did for me and wanted for me. And now I do and want the same things for him.”

Anna Reid, 38, is married to Jon Reid and they have two sons, Jack, 9 and Ethan, 6. They live in Veneta.

Anna Reid normally works as a waste prevention analyst in the Planning and Development Department for the city of Eugene. After the pandemic began, she was recruited March 17 to work in the Emergency Operations Center for the community. The EOC is a FEMA-based incident command system that is put in place during a community emergency. She works in the planning section providing support, tracking resources and keeping track of the overall scope of the emergency for all the other agencies in the area.

While she needs to go into the command center regularly, she has been able to work from home a few days each week. “That has been extremely helpful because my husband works full time as well,” she said. Traditionally, one of their parents have helped watch the children, but during the pandemic they have made the decision not to risk exposing them. They have arranged with a day care that has been able to stay open on the days she needs to go to Eugene. The boys are taking classes online through the Fern Ridge School District.

“Being a creature of routine and structure, it has helped to have a purpose and stay engaged with work and people I know. All of that has made things seem a little more normal,” Read said.

As things were beginning to shut down, Read found her thinking about being in a pandemic while driving home, saying to herself, “We are in an emergency right now, but it is so different from a snowstorm or what you would imagine an earthquake would be like. This is not the sort of emergency you typically prepare your mind and your household for.

“I have always loved being a public servant, but now I have found it way easier to identify things to be grateful for. I have a family I can rely on. I feel very privileged to be in a job where I can help the community. It makes me want to do my best work. Eugene has done an amazing job of flattening the curve and keeping as many people as possible safe.”

Mindy McGuire, 46, is a forensic technician with the Eugene Police Department. She is married to EPD detective Jed McGuire and they have one daughter, Meara, who is 8 years old.

McGuire has been with the city of Eugene for 13 years and became a forensic technician nine years ago. While both she and her husband get called out at all hours — him to violent crimes and her to property crimes — their schedules do not typically overlap. While they have made it work, she admits it requires some juggling.

“I respond to crime scenes, gather evidence and process it in the lab. I help with latent prints and video,” McGuire said. “Dealing with crime can be discouraging, but it is my little way of helping people. Typically the cases I go on are an invasion of someone’s privacy or property. I try to offer a little calm in their storm.” Crime has not gone away because of the closures, and McGuire wants everyone to know that law enforcement is still out there fighting it.

Her daughter is doing distance learning from school. She still has her extracurricular activities; they just do them via Zoom. She learned to ride a bike and tie her shoes during quarantine. “It is funny, Velcro has been our friend for so many years that tying shoes is a big deal now,” McGuire. Meara has also started writing letters to friends and family, which McGuire sees as one of the good things to come of the seclusion.

While they have extended family in the area, the couple have made the decision to stay isolated on their rural property. “I can throw a stone and not hit anybody out here,” McGuire joked.

Motherhood during the pandemic has been a challenge. Recognizing that her daughter is very social, she and her husband came to the conclusion that they needed to be her daughter’s friend as well as her parents. “We have been playing a lot of board games. We have pillow fights. I find ways for her to express her artistic side,” she said. “We planted a garden and Meara has been painting the names and pictures of each plant on rocks that we found to mark them in the garden.

“It is a bizarre new world for everybody, so you just have to take it in stride,” McGuire said.

Eugene police officer Jennifer Peckels, 33, has been with the force a little more than four years. She is married to Joel Peckels, a sergeant with the Eugene Police Department, and they have two boys, one 6 years old and the other 6 months old.

Of coming back to work with 6-month-old at home, Peckels admits that “balancing being a mom, maintaining everything that moms do, your house and also coming to work to do an A-plus job here is a challenge.”

Peckels said her 6-year-old is “chill.” He misses his friends but has adapted to online school well. The baby is another matter. “He is a great baby, but it is a lot of work,” she joked. The older child is aware of what is happening with the pandemic. “He told my husband and I that he didn’t want his little brother to get the COVID-19. Not just corona or covid, he knew it was ‘COVID-19,’” she said with a laugh.

Peckels feels lucky to be working a day shift in downtown Eugene and has been able to lean on her sister for child care. The sister had her hours cut at another day care because of the shutdown, so was happy to help out.

“We took special precautions with a baby at home. I didn’t want to bring any germs home before, but this (the pandemic) has elevated my awareness,” she said. “I am much more aware of touching surfaces and my face and keeping some distance from other people.”

“There is not a ton of foot traffic downtown anyway, but people are very much aware of keeping a distance during casual interactions,” she said. She has received a lot of thanks from the community while on the job, adding, “they appreciate that we are walking the beat and keeping an eye on their business while they’re not there. They are very thankful, and they express that quite regularly.”