COVID-19 frontline worker bursts into tears receiving gift of first-ever brand new car

Beverly DeSouza is a healthcare hero who has been working the frontline of the pandemic as a respiratory therapist at Adventist Healthcare in Silver Spring since it began last year.

The FOX 5 Pay It Forward Crew met her back in February after her supervisor, Jay Fuller wrote in to not only share how dedicated she was to her patients and fellow co-workers, but how she was managing to stay focused in the face of her own personal struggles.

DeSouza’s husband lost his job, she was supporting two kids in college, her basement flooded, and to add insult to injury, her car was falling apart.

"The brake lights were out, there was no heat, the hood was broken, I had to crawl through the passenger door to get in. It was really a mess," says DeSouza,
Easterns Automotive Group gave her a loaner car while they sent her car to their mechanics to repair. 

After a looking the car over, Easterns staff found it was just too much to fix and deemed the car unsafe to drive, but that’s not what we told DeSouza. 
Tuesday morning she met the crew at Easterns in Hyattsville to pick up her "repaired" car. Instead, she was presented a 2014 Chevy Cruze courtesy Easterns Automotive Group. 

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"When we began the process of repairing her vehicle there was still so much more to be done. So we decided the best thing to do was to give her and her family a new car so she can continue to provide the excellent care to her patients and support her co-workers," says Joel Bassam.

DeSouza was touched by the kindness of her friends at the hospital for nominating her but says it’s in her heart to give and take care of people. She’s happy to have a reliable form of transportation to continue to do so.