Virus devastates South Fayette family
When the first warnings of the COVID-19 virus began earlier this year, Gloria Jean Perkins, 74, and her 73-year-old husband, Pastor Gregory Perkins Sr., took every precaution, having medications and groceries delivered to the South Fayette home they shared with their disabled son Samuel David Perkins and confining their caretakers to members of their immediate family.
They were especially vigilant because all three had underlying medical conditions that placed them at higher risk for complications.
Despite those measures — or even perhaps because of them — two members of the family have died from the novel coronavirus, while six others have been sickened.
On July 5, Samuel Perkins, 34, died, followed 10 days later by his mother. Mr. Perkins, the family patriarch, remains hospitalized and other family members have recovered.
The problems started in mid-June, when Samuel Perkins, who used a wheelchair and was born with cerebral palsy and a lung disorder, developed a cough, said his sister Lisa Daugherty, of Bridgeville.
“Sammy got sick with a cough, and we thought it was just allergies or the common cold,” she said. “The doctor wasn’t seeing people, but he ordered medications for him, including breathing treatments and a CPAP machine with oxygen for nighttime. For two days, his cough wouldn’t stop, then he got a fever.”
By the time he arrived at St. Clair Hospital, other family members, including Mrs. Perkins and Mrs. Daugherty, who has lupus, also were diagnosed with COVID-19.
“Everybody tested positive,” Mrs. Daugherty said. “My dad, my other brother and his wife and children all tested positive. We were all caretakers for my brother and my parents. We’re not sure how it began, but we suspect that it might have been all the deliveries of medical supplies and groceries that came to the house.”
In the days and weeks that followed, Mrs. Daugherty, 53, her mother and her brother found themselves in the same isolated unit in the hospital, but unable to communicate with each other.
“We ended up on the same floor as Sammy; my mother and I were across the hall from each other, so we could see each other through the glass, and Sammy was two doors down,” Mrs. Daugherty said. “The hardest part about COVID is that you can’t be with your family.”
A survivor of breast and uterine cancer, Mrs. Perkins had diabetes and other health issues, but it was the separation from her family that caused her to deteriorate so quickly, her daughter believes.
“My mother got worse rapidly because she was so distraught that they wouldn’t let her see her son,” she said. “We think she was probably sick for a while with COVID but she was taking care of her son and not thinking about herself.”
For years, family members had cared for her brother, who wasn’t expected to live much longer, even without the virus, Mrs. Daugherty said. At home, they were able to help him in small but significant ways, such as getting narrower straws for him to use because he aspirated using standard-sized straws.
But at the hospital, they were hamstrung by rules and unable to help care for her brother, whose condition had severely deteriorated in recent years, Mrs. Daugherty said.
“We knew Sammy could pass away at any time,” she said. “His lungs never fully developed when he was born and he had a breathing disorder. We knew it wouldn’t take much.”
Before her brother died, Mrs. Daugherty and her mother finally were permitted to sit with him for a few minutes and video chat with other family members.
Mrs. Perkins recovered enough to go home for several days, but quickly relapsed and was hospitalized again before she died July 15. In the meantime, Mr. Perkins was admitted to the Pittsburgh VA Medical Center in Oakland, where he continues to recover.
“We got the house professionally sanitized,” her daughter said. “Mom wanted to go home — she was upset about Sammy’s death. They thought she would be okay with oxygen around the clock, but she was laboring to breathe and her oxygen levels kept dipping.”
Family ties
Bonds within the family had grown tighter since 2006, when her sister Thelma Perkins died of kidney failure at the age of 38, Mrs. Daugherty said. In the years since, she often spent the night at her parents’ home, caring for them and her brother or making meals, she said.
“We all worked together at our company, G&G Catering,” she said. “My brother Gregory started it after he went to school to become a chef. My mother would help him out on jobs, then she started doing it all the time.”
Her mother was a fabulous cook with a special affinity for baking bread, Mrs. Daugherty recalled.
“She was known for making homemade bread on Mondays,” she said. “After school, all the kids in the neighborhood could smell it and they would come to our house.”
Mrs. Perkins, nee Clemons, and her husband, were high school sweethearts and married 53 years ago.
Mr. Perkins started a nondenominational church, The Church of South Hills, and often shared preaching duties with his wife.
“They sometimes held services in our home, but always my mother was right there at my dad’s side, helping him preach. They went back and forth, and they really did it together,” her daughter said. “My mother was a mentor to many and she counseled people all the time and helped them with advice and financial help. And, she could keep a secret. People would confide in her because they knew whatever they said was going to stay with her.”
Before the pandemic, her brother Sammy participated in the McGuire Memorial Day Program and its employment center in Moon, where he worked as a paper shredder in the office, Mrs. Daugherty said.
“He acted like he was the boss, always giving orders,” she said, laughing. “And he loved music and radios. He must have had 30 radios — he got a new one every holiday.”
On his birthday this year — May 30 — her brother received four new radios and a special visit from the South Fayette Volunteer Fire Department, Mrs. Daugherty said.
“They brought the fire trucks down the street to wish him a happy birthday,” she said. “He was so thrilled to see them. I’m going to miss him and my mom so much.”
Funeral services are private due to current health restrictions, but the family hopes to have a memorial service at a later date.
A family friend has set up a crowdfunding site to help defray funeral and medical expenses for the family at https://www.gofundme.com/ f/clemons-family.