Bob Manus, long-time Plano crossing guard, dies at 79 from COVID-19
Manus, 79, watched over the children of Brinker Elementary for 16 years.
A Plano water tower in Plano, Texas, on Thursday, June 18, 2020. (Lynda M. Gonzalez/The Dallas Morning News)(Lynda M. Gonzalez / Staff Photographer)
A Plano crossing guard beloved by parents, children and others in the city has died following a weeklong battle with COVID-19, according to published reports.
Bob Manus, who was also known as “Mr. Bob,” was a neighborhood fixture at the corner of Yeary Road and Clark Parkway for 16 years, KXAS-TV (NBC5) reported.
“You don’t always realize the people who are in your life every day and do these things for your family. Sometimes you don’t recognize it until something like this happens,” Sarah Kissel, parent and PTA president, told NBC5.
Looking to 2021 with 4 North Texans whose common sense and grace inspired me in this wheels-off year
‘I can’t fix the pandemic, but I can help raise the money to fix this community garden,’ says Dallas neighborhood leader Anna Hill.
Anna Hill, in the Dolphin Heights Neighborhood Association garden, which is located next to her home. Hill has led the group for years and has long fought to improve areas of Dallas east of Fair Park.(Lawrence Jenkins / Special Contributor)
The identity of whoever first said “because someone carries it well, doesn’t mean it’s not heavy” has apparently been lost to time.
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The last eight months have been some of the hardest, she said.
Sanchez said the vaccine makes her feel more secure as she continues to help patients.
TonyChris Nnaka, also a nurse in the COVID unit, thought about his patients as he received the vaccine. I m just very privileged to be one of the first to receive it here at Parkland. It s an emotional moment to me, he said, I m thinking of my patients that were not able to get the vaccine.
Samantha Rowley, Senior Vice President of Surgical Services, described her days at the hospital during the pandemic: Exhausting. Scary. Something we care to never do again.
It is a bittersweet moment for COVID-unit nurse Tony Chris Nnaka.
“I think I’m thinking more about my patients, the ones that were not able to get this vaccine like I’m getting now. The ones that could’ve been saved from it,” he said as he prepared to receive his vaccine.
The first Parkland employee to receive the vaccine was nurse Perla Sanchez-Perez. A mother who has worked in the COVID-unit since March.
“It’s a moment that gives us hope,” she said. “Hope to hopefully decrease the chances, the incidents, the high numbers we have within our unit and hopefully to have some kind of normality.”