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The relatives began asking themselves all of the typical COVID questions before they were to gather for a birthday gathering on Nov. 1, weighing the risk versus reward of doing something that — in any other year — they wouldn’t have thought twice about.

Alexa Aragonez, a 26-year-old from Arlington, said about a dozen family members reflected on their recent actions ahead of the indoor celebration. They felt collectively they had been extremely vigilant since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, for the most part going to work and then coming home, believing in masks and social distancing, Alexa said. They decided it would be safe to gather, she said, if they kept it within their small circle. To not get together for a birthday would almost seem unthinkable.

Within their close-knit Hispanic family, Alexa said, events like birthdays are excuses for everyone to be together and to bond over food. Her cousin’s wife, whose birthday they were marking, was going to have fajitas and cake.

Alexa had plans that kept her from the party but dropped off her mother, Enriqueta Aragonez, who’s 57. There were 11 other people at the house, all younger than her mother, including her pregnant cousin and four children under the age of 12. They ate food and shared conversation, not coming in close for any pictures, and left.

It was a couple days later that some people, including Enriqueta, began to feel what seemed like the early symptoms of a cold, or the coronavirus. On Nov. 4, fearing the worst, those at the party and their family members went to get tested.

All 12 people at the party returned positive test results, and the virus had spread to three more people.