‘ This virus takes no prisoners’
For those affected by COVID-19 deaths, vaccine still brings hope
People who lost friends and family to COVID-19 expressed optimism this week about the arrival of a vaccine, even as they continued to mourn and miss their loved ones.
State Rep. Michelle Cook, D-Torrington, whose father-inlaw, William J. Cook Sr., died in April after contracting COVID-19, said the vaccine rollout makes her hopeful for other people.
She described how the family was not able to be at William Cook’s side when he died in the hospital because of COVID restrictions.
Instead, there was “an incredible nurse who held the phone up next to his ear and everybody got to say goodbye,” she said. “While my husband was saying goodbye, my fatherin-law took his last breath, while the nurse was holding his hand.”
“It’s such a devastating loss, especially in a situation where you can’t be next to that loved one,” she said. “When you can’t hold their hand and you can’t give them a hug goodbye. ... It’s just not the way that things should be.”
A few weeks earlier, William Cook was the first person in his family’s history to turn 90, she said.
But the milestone passed without the big celebration the family had planned for him due to visitation restrictions at the nursing home where he was living, she said.
Family was William Cook’s great pride, according to his daughter-in-law, who said everyone called him “Pops.”
When his son was growing up, William Cook never missed any sports games, and he attended all his grandkids’, too, Michelle Cook said.
“He didn’t miss anything,” she said. “He just had so much pride for his family, you know, that’s just not something that you can put into words.”
He was also a Vietnam War veteran, a fan of Frank Sinatra and of UConn basketball, according to Michelle Cook.
“It’s his family legacy … and his service to the country,” she said, when asked what her father-in-law should be remembered for.
“I think we have to not listen to all the naysayers and really do our own homework and our own research,” she in regard to skepticism about the vaccine, adding that since she was not a medical expert, she would not advise folks on whether they should get it.
But she warned folks against getting their information on social media.
“I will get the vaccination. Do I fear side effects? I think I fear side effects with anything, but at the same time I know what this virus does,” she said. “This virus takes no prisoners, you know, just because you don’t think that you won’t get it doesn’t mean that you’re not gonna get it.”
Cook also cautioned the public not to let its guard down yet.
“Unless we get 70 to 80 percent of our population vaccinated. we have not created herd immunity, and if we don’t have that we will not have the preventative measures that we need to fight off this virus,” she said.
Late judge’s son feels strongly about vaccine
Meanwhile, Kevin Duffy Jr. said the vaccine should be mandated.
He lost his father, the renowned federal judge Kevin Duffy, to COVID-19 in April.
“[The vaccine’s] not completely beneficial to anyone unless everyone takes it,” Duffy said, acknowledging he might feel more strongly about the vaccine due to his personal loss.
“Having my father pass away, by himself in the hospital, and not being able to see him is about as painful as it can possibly get for a family. And I will tell you it is not an unusual story,” he said.
While Duffy misses his dad, he’s happy a vaccine is finally here.
“I have an 87-year-old mother, too, and of course I’m thrilled that there’s going to be a vaccine.”
A retired U.S. District judge, the late Duffy, who was 87 and living in Greenwich when he died, was known for presiding over high-profile cases and for sentencing the terrorists behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Duffy read passages from the Quran during that sentencing. It was also not uncommon for the judge to cite writers such as Charles Dickens in his legal opinions.
Other cases he oversaw included that of Paul Castellano, the head of the Gambino organized crime family who was assassinated after his trial began, as well as lawsuits brought by American banks seeking Iranian assets after the country defaulted on loans — a case that was heard in the middle of the Iran hostage crisis.
The list goes on, but for the judge’s son, who also practices law as a managing member of the firm Duffy & Staab in Greenwich, it was his father’s humanity that was most important to remember.
“He understood his humanity before anything else,” the younger Duffy said of his father, who used to joke, “I’m a human first, I’m a judge second.”
“He had a great deal of friends and family, and the things that he cherished most in his life were his family and his friends. … The other stuff mattered but it wasn’t as important as those two things,” he said. “He would often do things for people when they needed help and wouldn’t tell them that he had done it. It would just be done.”
‘Relieved’
Sharon Beadle, public affairs officer for Stamford Public Schools, lost her 88year-old mother to complications of COVID-19 on Apr. 13 at Nathaniel Witherell nursing home in Greenwich.
Nursing home staff called Beadle on April 9 or 10, saying her mother, Marilyn Cumiskey, had spiked a fever and that another resident on the same floor had tested positive for the virus.
On Apr. 11, Beadle’s mother tested positive — two days before she finally succumbed to the illness.
“We were very upset and devastated because we hadn’t been able to see her for so long prior to that, and we were not able to get into Nathaniel Witherell, even before she passed or after they diagnosed her with COVID,” Beadle said, pointing to the restrictions on visitors at nursing homes during the peak of the first wave of the outbreak.
Even with her age and underlying health conditions, Beadle said she believes her mother would have lived to see her own birthday — on May 14 — and also Mother’s Day, “had it not been for the coronavirus.”
She said she’s “relieved” at the arrival of a vaccine. Cumiskey was always adamant about keeping up with her own vaccinations, Beadle said.
“I know that she would have gotten the vaccine and (I’m) hopeful, if it’s as effective as they say, she might have had another couple more years,” Beadle said of her mother. “I hope that we’re able to get the dissemination done more quickly in order to save more lives.”