His hunch proved prescient.

As he and Avina sipped craft beers Sunday afternoon at the neighborhood bar on San Fernando Road, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that bars in California should close their doors, restaurants should seat customers farther apart and senior citizens should isolate themselves.

“This could be the last bar we go to in a long time,” said Avina, 40, a bill collector for Spectrum, the internet and cable company…

For older Californians, the hard-won pleasures of their golden years — outings with grandchildren, breakfast at a diner with friends, dressing up for the opera — were being snatched from them. Some local seniors were angry and defiant, even as they knew they were especially vulnerable to the virus that causes the disease known as COVID-19, which can ravage the lungs and has a fatality rate that increases exponentially with age.