‘ A VERY STRONG BOND’
CT couple dies from COVID weeks apart
Steven Bajek brought his parents groceries on Tuesdays during the COVID- 19 pandemic. Ronald and Aracy Bajek, married for 54 years, had reservations about going out in public, running errands or even seeing family.
“My parents were very vigilant about staying inside the house,” Steven Bajek said.
Steven’s sister, Louise Lindinger, saw her parents in September when visiting Connecticut. Lindinger’s son had spaced out pumpkins on his property for kids to come by and pick out.
“That was the first time, I think, my parents had been out since COVID,” Lindinger, who now lives in Alabama, said. “They both seemed very well at that point. That was physically the last time I spoke to them.”
It was a month later, on Halloween, that Ronald Bajek fell and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. The 76- year- old suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung disease that can cause breathing problems and affect balance.
Steven drove his father home after recovery, but soon began dealing with flu- like symptoms. A test would soon confirm he had COVID- 19, but he made it a point to stay home and away from his parents.
Once Steven was no longer contagious, he visited his parents and found them in a “horrible” state. His father was fragile and had trouble breathing, so he took Ronald Bajek to Hartford Hospital, where he too tested positive for the virus.
Steven Bajek contacted his mom’s doctor, who ordered her to get tested right away. She said she felt fine, so he had to pressure her to go.
“Even at the time, I wasn’t that scared,” Steven Bajek said. “I was thinking, they’ll take care of her, fix her.”
The Bajeks, admitted to the hospital a day apart, would soon die — Ronald Bajek on Nov. 20 and his wife, Aracy on Dec. 4. The couple is among more than 500,000 Americans and over 7,650 Connecticut residents to die due to COVID over the past year. Now, as vaccine distribution continues to those around the state with more than 1 million having received at least their first shot, according to Gov. Ned Lamont, Steven Bajek insists his parents would have been among the first to sign up to receive the doses.
He also blames those who refused to wear masks and questions the handling of the pandemic by former President Donald Trump.
“Maybe it wouldn’t have spread and they wouldn’t have gotten it,” Steven Bajek said.
The Bajeks’ two children, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren are reeling from losing both of them at once. “You don’t expect to lose to this monster so quick,” Lindinger said.
‘ You look up to a couple like that’
The couple lived in Enfield for decades, but met in Aracy Bajek’s home country of Brazil. They met in São Paulo when Ronald Bajek was stationed there in the Air Force in the 1960s.
“He comes from a line of people that served,” Lindinger said. “I think that was just his way of getting out and seeing the world and following in the footsteps of his father and his brothers, uncles.”
Their children said they do not know the details of how their parents met and fell in love. But after they married, they lived in an apartment and then assisted housing, saving up to buy a house in Enfield, where Ronald Bajek grew up, their son said.
Aracy Bajek did not speak English when she came to Connecticut. She studied at night school, eventually becoming a nurses’ aid at a senior facility and later private care. She worked third shift and slept during the day, her daughter said.
“She had a big heart, a big heart, always wanted to help other people out,” said Lindinger, lived five houses from her parents with her three three sons, who grew up running to their grandparents’ house and playing in their backyard with friends. Her sons are 32, 31 and 27.
Ronald Bajek retired from the Air Force after getting married and worked at Hamilton Standard and then Pratt and Whitney as a photographer, shooting art from helicopters for promotional leaflets and videos, his son said. The parents adjusted their schedules for their daughter’s gymnastics and their son’s guitar lessons. “All their spare time was concentrated on us,” Lindinger said.
They were like parents to other children in the neighborhood, like Tara Sadoski, Lindinger’s friend, who spent part of her Christmas with them.
“I never called them Mr. and Mrs. Bajek,” she said. “They were Mom and Pop to me.”
She described the couple as “inseparable.”
“You look up to a couple like that,” Sadoski said.
Lindinger described her parents as quiet. Her mom enjoyed crafts, crocheting and knitting, while her dad played the drums with his friends. He had been in a polka band as teenager.
He was a gun instructor and taught people how to be certified, his son said. She enjoyed gambling at the casino They definitely had a bond, a very strong bond,” said their daughter, Louise Lindinger. “They couldn’t do anything without each other, grocery shopping together, grabbing gas together.
‘ They both needed each other’
When the couple was admitted to the hospital, they were placed on the same floor but couldn’t see each other. Ronald Bajek was put on 100 percent oxygen, while Aracy Bajek was given a lesser amount, Lindinger said.
Lindinger packed her bags and drove from Alabama to Connecticut as soon as her father tested positive. She, her brother and husband video chatted with her dad while he was in the hospital.
“We knew he wasn’t going to make it,” said Lindinger as she started to cry. “He said goodbye to us like he knew. He just said he was done.”
She described how he brought his mask down to say ‘ I love you.’” “You could see he was just so frustrated because he couldn’t breathe,” she said.
Their father had a do- notresuscitate order, so the doctors gave him medication to make him comfortable, and he died soon after, his son said.
But their mother went into a coma soon after going to the hospital. She did not have a do- not- resuscitate order, so Steve Bajek said he waited until recovery was no longer an option before taking her off life support. The siblings visited their mother in the hospital before she died.
The family had a small, graveside funeral the Saturday before Christmas.
“Of course, Christmas was awful,” Lindinger said.
Normally, the family spends Christmas Eve at their parents’ house, Steven Bajek said. He went to his nephew’s house for Christmas dinner, but the family members kept away from each other to avoid spreading the virus.
“Next year, it will probably be whoever has the biggest house, we’ll all go over there,” he said. “But it won’t be the same.”
Yet, Steven Bajek is trying to see the silver lining.
“They would have been horrible without each other,” he said. “They both needed each other.”
“I never called them Mr. and Mrs. Bajek. They were Mom and Pop to me.”
Tara Sadoski, who grew up in the Bajek’s neighborhood and spent Christmases with the family