Sweat poured from Ivan Hunter’s face as he kneeled down, finishing pouring and smoothing concrete under the blazing sun of northern Georgia. He wiped his brow with his shirt sleeve, stifling a dry cough that had been lingering for days. His wife and two small sons had recently been sick with a cold, too, but Ivan tested negative for Covid-19 and had continued showing up to his job with the largest concrete pump company in the world.
The hours were long, the days starting at the crack of dawn and stretching nearly to nightfall. The money was good, though, and Ivan and his wife Sarah had recently purchased their dream home – a comfortable hideaway tucked within the hills of the Appalachians.