Grandma Makes 800 Tamales To Thank Hospital Staff For Saving Her Life

December 19, 2020

An elderly survivor of COVID-19 decided to make 800 tamales as a way to thank the doctors and nurses who cared for her.

Margarita Montañez, 73, promised the medical staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California that if she survived the coronavirus she would bring them homemade tamales for Christmas.

Montanez, a grandmother of 12, spent 20 days in the hospital and several on a ventilator in the intensive care unit.

On Thursday, she fulfilled her promise and delivered 800 tamales to the hospital, which took her five days to cook.

"People may not remember her but she remembers the medical staff every single day because of what they did to save her life and the lives of literally thousands of people," Montanez's daughter Cindy told KTLA. "So they are the heroes and they deserve the best tamales in the world, which are my mom's tamales."