ROBSTOWN, Texas — After getting in line too late to get a COVID-19 vaccine at the most recent 'mega' vaccine drive-through, Kimberly and Roy Tyler parked their car near the makeshift clinic at the Borchard Fairgrounds in Robstown, Texas, Monday, almost 24 hours before the event was set to begin.
"I said we leave early this morning, spend the night, and we’ll be first in line to get the shot," Roy said. "So that’s what we did.”
They were actually second in the line that stretched hundreds of yards down Texas Yes Boulevard in Robstown as of Monday afternoon.
The Tylers let another couple pull in front of them out of the goodness of their hearts.
“One person isn’t going to make a difference," Roy said. "I said, 'Go ahead.' It’s a good thing.”
Their gesture makes Patricia Carroll the first person in line to get the coronavirus vaccine when the gates open at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
"We’ll stay here until we’re done," she said. "We’re going to plan on spending the night. We brought food, water, something to read. We’re going to be OK."
Tammy Edwards of Port Aransas, Texas, did not bring food for herself and her husband.
Instead she walked about half a mile from her car parked in the vaccine clinic line to a Popeyes restaurant just past the Highway 77 overpass.
She says the walk -- and now the wait until morning for the shot -- is worth it to the couple.
“My husband has some elderly parents, and we’re just so afraid that even the little that we do could possibly cause them harm," Edwards said. "We’re wanting to go visit, so that way we feel safer having the vaccine.”
The vaccine seekers want to protect themselves and others, and they're hopeful the shots are the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think this vaccine is going to do it if we can all get it,” Carroll said.
This article was written by KRIS.
