Virus spread quickly
Eight retirees ranging from age 70s to mid-90s had been getting together for a home poker game at their condo in South Florida for years. Five days a week, they played a low-stakes game like many of us might, just having a blast spending time with friends. A month ago was their last game. Now, three are dead from COVID-19 and the other five have been infected.
Harriet Molko, one of the group of friends, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that the virus was likely stemmed from their game on March 12th. This was at a time when Florida still had fewer than 200 confirmed cases of coronavirus and the CDC had only advised against gatherings of 50 or more people.
Molko and her husband were lucky. They survived. But she still went through hell. Her symptoms appeared on March 15th and a week later she was in the hospital, diagnosis confirmed. She spent nine days in the hospital and honestly thought that was it, that she was going to die.
“I don’t know how I made it,” Molko, who is in her 70s, told the Sun Sentinel. “I guess I’m just younger and stronger.”
Her husband, Ronald, is in his 80s, but did not have to be hospitalized.
Her son couldn’t even see her
94-year old Marcy Friedman, was not as fortunate. A retired school secretary from New York, she was the organizer of the poker games. Friedman’s symptoms also began on March 15th. Her son, Andrew, told her to cut back on her poker games just a few days before. He was seeing what was happening in New York, where he still lives.
Friedman had underlying heart, lung and kidney conditions, according to Andrew, and was admitted to the hospital on March 16th with breathing troubles. She didn’t even get the result of her coronavirus test for ten days. Marcy Friedman passed away on March 28th. Andrew flew down to see her on the 23rd, but could only see her via smartphone.
“It was terrible for me,” he said. “I’m sure it was terrible for her.”
They stayed together
At the very least, Beverly Glass, 84, and Fred Sands, 86, were together at the end. Also from New York, they were both widowed in the 1990’s, but saw their friendship later grow into love. They were a couple for two decades.
Glass’s daughter, Lori Helitzer, told them to stop playing in the poker games before the March 12th get-together, even delivering them groceries so they could stay home. Like many people, “They didn’t get it.”
Within a week of the game, they were both admitted to the hospital, diagnosed with COVID-19, and put in separate rooms. Helitzer convinced hospital staff to let them be together in one room; they were both infected, so what did it matter?
Beverly Glass watched Fred Sands pass away on March 27th. He had non-Hodgkins lymphoma and tightening in the arteries, underlying factors that may have exacerbated his condition, as we have all learned by now.
Beverly, who also had tightening in the arteries, succumbed four days later.
Helitzer is somewhat thankful that the two at least had each other at the end, as so many people who lose the battle with COVID-19 die alone.
