'A kind of grief that is new to all of us': Elizabeth Warren speaks out about brother who died from coronavirus
Senator's brother was in hospital with pneumonia when virus began to spread across nation
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Your support makes all the difference.For Senator Elizabeth Warren, the hardest part about her brother’s death due to the coronavirus is knowing that he died alone.
In a new essay published at The Atlantic, Ms Warren – once a hopeful candidate in the Democratic primary – discussed the death of her brother and the emotional toll it has taken on her.
Ms Warren’s brother, Donald Reed Herring, 86, was hospitalised for pneumonia in February and contracted the coronavirus while he was recovering from the illness.
“And then when he said that the coronavirus test had come back positive, it’s like that note you hear far off – a warning. And I remember thinking I couldn’t breathe,” Ms Warren wrote.
She said she’d call her brother every day, and every day he’d assure her that he was feeling fine. According to Ms Warren, her brother was irritated with having to stay in the hospital, and the family was already determining who would drive him home when he was discharged.
But then Mr Herring got sick. Ms Warren’s calls were going unanswered. Her brother had been moved to an emergency room as his condition worsened.
“In any other state of the world, I would have been there with him. We all would have been there with him. And instead he was by himself,” she said. “I just kept imagining what’s happening to him. Is he afraid? Is he cold? I kept thinking about whether he was cold. There’s no one there to talk to him while he waits for the doctor. There’s no one there to be with him while he receives the news.”
Ms Warren said she struggled with her inability to spend time with her brother and offer him face-to-face comfort while he was sick. She said all she could do was call him.
“It’s not the same. You need to touch people. We have to hug; we have to be with each other,” Ms Warren said.
Ms Warren said there was a moment when he brother rallied and was well enough to talk with her on the phone. He said he hadn’t been getting out of bed, but that he was feeling somewhat better.
But then his health tanked again, for the last time.
Ms Warren said that while everyone suffers loss and has to learn how to navigate the associated grief, deaths due to Covid-19 have a specific cruelty for those left to mourn.
“What were their last days like? Were they afraid? Were they cold? Were they lonely?” she wrote. “That is a kind of grief that is new to all of us. And my brothers won’t get over this. They just won’t. None of us will.”
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