DEADLY LESSON IN COVID-19
Church group ‘did nothing wrong’
Rev. Shannon Mang wishes she could turn back time and make everything right again.
But since that’s impossible, Mang has decided to help Albertans learn from the painful past and the deaths of two of her congregants at Living Spirit United Church, in an effort to help protect people today and into the future from COVID-19.
“It would be really great to have a time machine,” Mang said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “But we don’t, so all we can do now is warn others about what happened to us so they can avoid the pain, grief and anguish we have suffered and continue to suffer.”
On March 15, the day before Canada shut its borders to international travellers, the small Britannia church in southwest Calgary with a congregation of about 100 members, made “a considered decision” to meet for what they anticipated would be their last in-person worship service before starting online services, as a result of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11 and Canada confirming its first death from the disease on March 9.
After the Sunday morning service, 41 members of the congregation got together for a light lunch and cake to celebrate the 85th birthday of a beloved congregant.
If this is starting to sound familiar, it’s because on May 7, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw highlighted during her daily briefing what happened at the church as a “cautionary tale” of the tragedy that can strike, even when you are super careful and do everything right.
“They followed all the rules and did nothing wrong,” said Hinshaw.
“Unfortunately, within a week of the event, one person who had been there tested positive for COVID-19. Many others followed,” said Hinshaw.
“In total, 24 of the 41 people who attended were confirmed to be cases, three of those people ended up in hospital and two of them died.”
One of the people who died was 81-year-old Dennis Morey, an active and vibrant father of three adult daughters and one son, grandpa to five grandsons and husband to Pat for the past 56-and-a-half years.
“He was the most awesome person,” said Shannon Morey, 54, one of his four children.
“He had a really good sense of humour and when he talked to people he made them feel like they were really important and special,” she said.
“He loved to play with the grandkids and granddogs, he went to all their sports activities and was just so supportive of everybody and was always there to pick us up when we fell down. He loved to garden and he was so very kind,” said Morey.
To say that the entire family and congregation “are devastated by his loss” and the death of the other congregant “is an understatement” added Morey, who is the owner/operator of Spiffy Dogs, a dog grooming business.
Two days after the March 15 church gathering, Pat, 83, thought she had a sinus infection. On March 18, Dennis thought he had caught a cold. Even though they both got progressively worse, Pat started nursing her sicker husband. They both had the dreaded disease.
Another congregant had an unrelated medical appointment and even though she was asymptomatic, she tested positive for COVID-19. Within 24 hours, everyone who was at the church on March 15 was contacted and tested.
By April 3, Dennis was having such a hard time breathing he was taken to Rockyview Hospital. On April 5 he went into the ICU. Two days later “the incredible medical staff ” did a regular Facetime call with him and the family, and even though he was on a ventilator and couldn’t talk, he pointed at one of his sparkling blue eyes, then to his heart and then he pointed at the phone — “I Love You” he said in his own makeshift sign language.
Those were the last words he was able to express to his family.
He took a turn for the worse later that night, hung on for another three weeks and died April 26.
“We were praying for a miracle with dad when he was sick but I think we got a miracle by mom surviving. We could have lost them both,” Morey said.
Not being able to be by his side during his three weeks in hospital was agony for the family, and is one of the cruel aspects of this devastating virus.
“Under normal circumstances we would have had a family member by his side 24/7,” said Morey, but they weren’t allowed.
Perhaps because Pat had just recuperated from the coronavirus, she was granted permission to be by her beloved husband’s side for the last seven hours of his life, to hold his hand, kiss him and be with him when he passed from this world to the next.
“We are very thankful for that,” said Morey.
Since large groups cannot gather, funerals or memorials of more than 15 people are not allowed.
But there are creative ways to pay tribute in these strange times. On May 2, the church organized a drive-by candlelight vigil for both of their congregants who died. More than 105 cars came by, lighting a candle, which Rev. Mang would then place on the lawn.
“It was incredibly moving,” said Morey. Earlier that same day, the family sat around the fire pit in the backyard of the family home and prayed, sang songs, read letters and told stories about Dennis. The church also held online memorials and wakes.
“I wouldn’t wish these past eight weeks on my worst enemy,” said Morey. “So that’s why I’ve agreed to tell our story of our great loss. My dad would have wanted us to warn others to show love and respect for one another by staying apart and being careful.”
As most of Alberta enters into the first stage of its relaunch strategy to get the economy moving again, Mang and Morey want to remind all Albertans to proceed with caution.
There are no time machines.