Susan Guercio, who has been a customer for 22 years, opened doors at 5:30 a.m. and welcomed ‘the morning coffee crew’. Doors are closed at seven days a week at midnight. That is, until the pandemic closed the city last March.
But his father tried to be positive about the situation, Mr. Panayiotou remembers. “I remember one of the waiters saying, ‘All right, Pete. Goodbye, ‘and my father said,’ Not goodbye – until I see you again. ”
The next day, Chris’ father complained of stomach pains. “We told him, ‘Maybe you’re nervous,'” he said. Panayiotou said. It was the first time Gee Whiz had closed in 30 years, apart from the aftermath of September 11, during which Peter Panayiotou spent several months clearing up the damage from the terrorist attacks, just a few meters away.
The exposure to the contamination in 2001 contributed to Peter Panayiotou’s need for a double lung transplant seven years ago. When the virus appeared, he was 65 years old and considered a high risk for Covid-19. To be safe, the family took him to the emergency room, but he was sent home and told to isolate him. By this time, Chris’ mother, Maria (67), had tested positive for the virus. Two days later, his father returns to the emergency room, but is sent home again. The next day he turned blue. An ambulance arrived.
“It was the last time we saw Dad turn in the ambulance,” he said. Panayiotou said. This time his father stayed in the hospital and he was put in a ventilator. He died on April 5, nine days after the death of Andy Koutsoudakis, his thirty-year-old business partner, also of Covid-19.
Chris was devastated. Days were spent in bed and nights on his living room couch looked at the wall in the dark. He started smoking again, went through a pack of Marlboro 27s a day and shed almost 50 pounds within four months.