A couple married for 30 years died from coronavirus together while holding hands, CNN reported last Thursday.
Paul Blackwell, 62, and Rose Mary Blackwell, 65, passed away at the Harris Methodist Hospital with their children by their sides.
Both of them were teachers in the Grand Prairie Independent School District in Grand Prairie, Texas.Rose Mary taught second grade, having just finished her 20th year at Travis World Language Academy. Paul taught physical education and was the football coach at Fannin Middle School.
The couple's children ultimately decided to take them off life support after being informed that their was no chance of recovery while they were on ventilators.
The school districts in which they work expressed their condolences in a post to social media, and noted that both will be missed. They had four children and 20 grandchildren.
Heartbreaking stories of loss have been a constant reality amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In Israel, Awi, a man in his 50s, has been in the ward for nearly a month. His mother is intubated a few rooms away, and his wife, who also has coronavirus, is in a separate coronavirus ward.
“I have no idea what is happening to her,” he said of his mother, whose room is only 100 meters away from his. Because he is hooked up to oxygen, he cannot leave his room to check on her.
A hospital sociologist, Einas Shaaban, recalled a situation in which an elderly woman and her husband were both hospitalized but in different units. Staff members knew she was about to die, so they found a way to transfer her to her husband’s bedside.
“We put the beds next to each other and she said goodbye to him that way,” Shaaban recalled. “It just tore you apart to watch. I will never be able to get that image out of my mind.”Maayan Hoffman contributed to this report.