By ALLISON BROPHY CHAMPION
CULPEPER STARâEXPONENT
Don and Mary Ellen Hulcher, married nearly 50 years, were the first Culpeper residents to test positive for COVID-19. That was in mid-March, in the same week Virginiaâs governor closed schools and businesses amid the worsening global pandemic.
The Culpeper StarâExponent reported these initial cases on March 21, as a âmarried coupleâ residing in the same household. It was moving week for the Hulchers, retired grandparents in their 70s who, after a five-year planning process, were ready to relocate to their new house in the rolling hills of Culpeper County.
But within days of moving from a river home in Virginiaâs Northern Neck, Don Hulcher was ill with COVID-19.