On Thursday, Utah passed 1000 deaths from COVID-19. It took seven months to reach 500 deaths and only 2 more to double that and reach 1000. That toll could double again in less than ten week, even with a vaccine.
Each of those deaths was of someone’s wife, mother, father, sister, brother or friend.
Utah’s news outlets are sharing stories of some of those we lost. Fox 13 shared the story of Analiza (Ana) Banez Scholes. Ana, her husband David and their son all tested positive for COVID-19. David and their son had mild symptoms and while Ana was a bit worse, it was not until the 10th day that things got really bad. She was admitted to the ICU and passed away on November 29. She was only 48.
National outlets have shared some of Utah’s stories as well. CNN shared the story of Lindsay Wootton who lost her mother, Tracy Larsen, age 56 and her grandfather, Bert Poter, age 80. She shared this: “The last conversation — the whole day — was probably one of the harder days of my life,” Wootton said. “We called my grandpa and I put him on speaker phone so he could talk to my mom. He said, ‘kiddo, I’m not doing good,’ and she said, ‘dad, I’m not either.’ And he said ‘(Tracy), I’m dying. And she said, ‘dad, I am too.'”
Bert’s last words to his daughter Tracey were “I’ll look for you in heaven.”
