Staying Essential Amid Coronavirus Closure In Mission Viejo

MISSION VIEJO, CA — At the end of the third week of coronavirus-mandated shutdowns, residents in Mission Viejo stepped outside this past weekend to shop for essentials, stroll and say hello to one another, albeit from a distance.

Mission Viejo police services headed out on bike patrol Saturday and shared a video of a tour through local neighborhoods. They checked for public gatherings and stopped by stores that are closed to shoppers, ensuring all is well.

"It was great to see all of the smiles today," Lt. Quyen Vuong wrote on Instagram. "Everyone was maintaining their social distance, and there were no large gatherings."

During the shutdown, essential businesses remain open, including grocery stores, restaurants, and hardware stores. The weekend was sunny and warm, but thick clouds of doubt are hovering over the beauty industry.

In Mission Viejo, Golden Skin and Lashes, in the Mission Viejo Marketplace, has been forced to close its doors during the coronavirus pandemic. Like many in the beauty industry, it is not considered an "essential business."

Local esthetician and business owner Cindy Golden could be struggling with the concept of being nonessential. Instead, she's doing her best to keep Mission Viejo beautiful even during the shutdown.

In her Instagram posts, she does her best to shine her light and leave her mark on the world while keeping the lights on at home.

Golden is selling online and conducting home deliveries of products while sharing health and beauty tips for local customers over social media. For many of Mission Viejo's women, lashes and facials are essential. She described one client, a hospice nurse, who considers lashes part of her "armor" as she goes out to fight the COVID-19 battle on the front line.

"She told me our lashes give her the strength and confidence to give her best at what she does while filing through this," Golden wrote. "We are all essential, important and loved. Your job does not define you. I'm here to tell you. You are essential and important to those who you have allowed into your life and chose to serve."

While at home, she's working on her garden; and like many, she's watching Netflix. Still, Golden has turned her attention to things that inspire, such as "Self Made," the story of the first-ever self-made female millionaire.

"Women working together will lift us all," Golden shared. "When this pandemic is all over, we will be scrambling to get back at it, and we will be working hard. Let's help each other through this!"

In the meantime, she thanked the Mission Viejo Police Services for keeping an eye on her brick-and-mortar studio to keep it safe while she stays home, doing her part to slow the spread of COVID-19.

"I miss all the girls at Golden Skin and Lashes," she wrote on her Instagram page. "We'll be back and ready to make our already lovely friends in the community feel as beautiful as they already are!"

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How are you doing during this time of coronavirus shutdown? Tell Patch your story at Ashley.Ludwig@Patch.com or on your neighbor page.

Read Also:

• Week 1 Of Coronavirus Shutdown In OC, Social Distancing, School Closures
• Week 2 Of Coronavirus Shutdown in OC, Economic Fallout
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