At the time of this writing, at least 842,624 Americans have contracted COVID-19, while at least 46,785 people throughout the nation have died as a result of infection.
While that number is understandably tragic in the abstract, it becomes all the more harrowing when a loved one faces their own brush with the disease. It then becomes clear just how many people are facing the same anxieties that you are and how many must now treat our worst fears about the disease as an immediate reality.
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Today, U.S. Democratic Senator and former presidential candidate Elizababeth Warren confirmed reports that she is now among the sadly growing number who can say the virus has robbed them of someone dear to their hearts.
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For those unaware, Warren is the youngest of four siblings who grew up in Oklahoma.
On the right in this photo is 86-year-old Donald Reed Herring, the eldest of the four, in his younger days.
As The Boston Globe reported , he tested positive for COVID-19 in early April and spent 11 days without symptoms before taking a turn for the worse on April 15.
At the age of 19, Herring enlisted in the United States Air Force, where he flew B-47 and B-52 bombers.
According to The Boston Globe , he flew 288 combat missions, received numerous decorations, and eventually became a squadron commander.
He would retire from the service in 1973 after receiving the rank of lieutenant-colonel and ended up starting a car detailing business.
Warren said that her brother was a natural leader and tweeted , “What made him extra special was his smile—quick and crooked, it always seemed to generate its own light, one that lit up everyone around him..”
Although he and one of Warren’s other brothers are Republicans, they nonetheless supported their sister’s presidential campaign and appeared in one its released videos at the start of February.
Later that month, Herring would be hospitalized for pneumonia in Oklahoma and was eventually transferred to a rehabilitation center to recover. However, that facility would eventually see active cases of COVID-19.
By April 15, Herring was placed in intensive care at Norman Regional Hospital, though he was not on a ventilator.
Warren reportedly spoke with him daily before this hospitalization and last had the opportunity to speak with him on April 19 when he appeared to be feeling better.
Sadly, this health improvement would not last and he died two days after this.
As Warren tweeted out, “I’m grateful to the nurses and frontline staff who took care of him, but it’s hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say “I love you” one more time—and no funeral for those of us who loved him to hold each other close. I’ll miss you dearly my brother.”
h/t: The Boston Globe
