on march 21, 2021, sophia michaluk lost her father eddy after he came down with covid-19 — one week before his vaccination was scheduled. within three, he would succumb to the virus. sophia found ways to cope with the loss, and how to rebuild – along with her mother, monique — family, a career and a home.
it all feels so surreal because my father — the minute covid-19 began — told us “if i catch this thing, i don’t think i’m gonna make it.”
in february 2021, he was a week away from getting vaccinated, and he got sick. there was an outbreak in my parents’ elderly residential building. within a week, he was starting to feel ill, and i was calling every day to check in. one morning i called and my mother told me that she had to call 911 and the ambulance came to pick him up. my mother had also tested positive. her apartment building went into lockdown — so for a while, i had both of my parents sick at the same time. i was going from checking in on my dad with medical staff to checking on my mother. she ultimately pulled through, but he was admitted to the intensive care unit (icu) on march 1 and passed away on march 21. it all happened in three weeks — we didn’t see him until the day he died.
he had refused to be intubated, so the doctors planned to try other types of ventilation and treatment. they called us and asked that we get our family together so we could have a facetime call since we couldn’t be in the hospital. everything was wrapped in plastic — we could hear the cracks and squeaks as it rubbed together. it was especially difficult because my mother wasn’t feeling well and i couldn’t help her set up the call, so it was just me and my sister. my father said, “i’m okay, i’m not feeling so bad. it’s hard to breathe.” he was sitting up most of the time, because he could not lay down.
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