- COVID-19 has taken the lives of multiple loved ones from some families.
- Dealing with the death of more than one family member at a time is a concurrent crisis.
- There are ways to deal with such grief.
Bob and Bano Carlos were married 53 years when they both died from COVID-19.
According to their daughter, Tracey Carlos, they were inseparable.
“As important as my brother and I were to them, they were everything to each other,” she told Healthline.
During a phone call on March 14, 2020, Carlos learned that her mom had a fever and that her father wasn’t feeling well.
“They lived in a retirement community in Florida and assumed COVID was in the West Coast and hadn’t reached the East Coast yet. Florida was downplaying it at the time, and so they continued to live their life,” Carlos said.
Both of Carlos’ parents tested positive for COVID-19, and both were intubated in the intensive care unit (ICU) on March 20.
Because her mother lived with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), Carlos knew the chances of her surviving COVID-19 were unlikely.
She died on March 25 at 73 years old.
Carlos lives in Olympia, Washington, and wasn’t able to travel to Florida to be near her mother before she passed. However, Carlos did get there in time for her father’s last days.
“Dad lasted 30 days in the ICU, and we fully expected him to recover. He had COPD, but he practically forgot he had it because it [was managed] and wasn’t a major part of his life,” Carlos said.
Bob died on April 24 at 75 years old.
“It’s so hard to lose them both, but [the only] relief — and that’s hard to say — is that we didn’t have to tell Dad that Mom passed away,” Carlos said.
Source: healthline