Page 20 - C.A.L.L. #47 - Winter 2020/2021

Inside a coronavirus commune with 16

people: ‘Who’s to say we’re not family?’

By Maria L. La Ganga
May 31, 2020
https://www.latimes.com

The plan started simply enough. As the pandemic forced schools to shutter in March, three
families in a leafy corner of downtown Riverside banded together to make sure all their
children kept learning.

The record-producer dad taught music classes. The court-commissioner mom gave speech
lessons. There was time for art and silent reading and yoga and schoolwork assigned remotely
by teachers who seemed very far away. Class began at 9 a.m., no pajamas, no excuses.

But achieving that modest goal —

caring for each other’s children
— became far more complicated
as the virus’ toll mounted. What
began as a home school dubbed
the Brothbush Academy ended
up as a kind of coronavirus
commune, as the quarantined
families came to depend on each
other to stay healthy and safe.

The Bristows and the Roths live
side by side in century-old The students of “Brothbush Academy” cheer for their home

houses, one Craftsman-style, one school on the Roths’ front lawn in the midst of the coronavirus
Spanish Revival. Classes are held outbreak in Riverside.
in one home or the other, and the
gate separating their yards swings wide seven days a week, a constant stream of kids and
parents, dogs and food, flowing back and forth. The Furbushes live 900 feet away — walk to
the corner, hang a right, and you’re there.

The families had been inseparable since long before anyone heard of COVID-19. Which is
what made the March 28 meeting at the Roths’ long dining room table so painful.

After dinner, the grownups began hashing out the most difficult details of caring for seven
adults and nine children ranging in age from 6 to 14 as the deadly disease spread around the
globe. Hard choices normally made in the confines of a single family were suddenly being
debated by a committee.

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