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For One COVID-19 Widow, 'It's For Real, It's No Joke'

Sandee Oshiro/HPR
Chairs representing those who died in the COVID-19 pandemic in Hawaii stand empty at Central Union Church on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020.

On Sunday, Central Union Church tolled its tower bells 228 times, one for each person who has died of COVID-19 in Hawaii and for the nine whose confirmation of death from the virus remains pending.

Across the expansive lawn of the church, 228 folding chairs stood empty, a visual reminder of the toll that COVID-19 has exacted in the islands.

Sitting nearby as the bells tolled one after another, a wife grieved for her husband, her arms wrapped around her teenage son. Spouse and father had passed away from the virus just two days earlier.

When HPR asked to speak with her, she requested we not use her name. Some in her family still don't know about the death.

"My husband was a very happy, well-liked person, happy go lucky. He did everything to protect himself. In fact, he would get mad when people weren't masking up, you know?

"We don't know how he got it, he still worked. He'll never be able to enjoy his retirement with me. He was one of the younger ones."

The 57-year-old senior engineer tried to be careful, she said. But he was working, and so was out and about.

"What people need to know is that -- what the doctors told me -- is that there are certain people that should never get this disease. He had no major medical problems. They kept telling me that, you know, he should be able to get out of this and everything. 

"But what we learned is that he had very inflexible lungs. And so when you're like that you can't breathe, and they put you on a ventilator. He was on a ventilator for over four weeks. And it eventually scarred his lungs, because he couldn't breathe on his own, he needed the machine." 

She wants people to know that COVID is very real and very dangerous.

"I spent a week in the hospital, too, because I caught it from him. Luckily, my son didn't get it, or my dad. But people need to know, they need to be careful. It's for real, it's no joke. Look how long the bells tolled. It went on, and we're not finished.

"This is gonna go on and on. Until people can learn to be different and mask up. This is the new norm. It's never gonna get better until we can get rid of it." She hopes there isn't another wave behind it.

Her husband was a good man, she said. 

"Everybody always says how he was always smiling and, you know, very friendly. And he had his other side of him, too, you know. But he was my other half. What I don't do, he did. We were actually a perfect couple together. And now, we've lost that."

She says people were shocked to hear her husband had died. As young as he was, it appeared he would be able to get through this. But she said age doesn't matter when it comes to COVID-19.

"If it's going to take you, it's going to take you. And, you know,  I keep reminding myself there are 230,000 other people out there who have lost loved ones just like us. We're not alone. But somebody or some somebody on top needs to really figure this out so we can get rid of it."

The state put the official death toll at 219 people as of Sunday. Over 15,150 Hawaii people have contracted the disease since the pandemic began.

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