This is part of a Yahoo News Series honoring some of the American lives lost to COVID-19. Their stories are told by family and friends, who have had to deal with their deaths, which are often sudden and painful.
Kathy Ann Weldon, 63, of Salem, Missouri, died on January 24, 2021, after falling ill with COVID-19. She is among the more than 500,000 Americans who have lost their lives to the disease since the coronavirus pandemic began last year.
Her 28-year-old husband, Randy Weldon, told Yahoo News that his wife was a loving mother, grandmother and the love of his life.
Kathy Weldon was a medical technologist who worked in small town hospital labs for almost 30 years. Most recently, Weldon worked at Salem Memorial District Hospital, where she was director of the laboratory department. She had just retired in 2019.
Her husband says that “she was a very dedicated employee” who loved to help those she managed.
“Kathy would cover people’s shifts for the holidays,” he said. “She just felt like she needed to get in there, work and help employees. … We were empty nesters. She worked on the holidays so that other people who had children could enjoy the holidays at home with their children, and we would make up for it later. “
Her daughter, Laura Johnson, said that one of her mother’s favorite things to do outside the lab was fishing. “She taught all of us children to fish,” said Johnson, adding that Weldon also loved to paint and make crafts and was “an avid seamstress.”
Randy Weldon remembered how much his wife loved children. She liked substitute teaching and enjoyed doing laboratory demonstrations for elementary school students.
She loved her grandchildren deeply. The couple had 11 grandchildren that Weldon says “were the loves of her life”.
Randy and Kathy Weldon contracted COVID in mid-December 2020. The virus did not affect Randy as much, but Kathy quickly deteriorated. After being hospitalized for five weeks, she lost the battle with the disease.
For Randy Weldon, losing his life partner was devastating. “It is a very difficult situation to be in, when you have been married or partnered to someone for so long and he is suddenly gone. … And you think to yourself, “I don’t know if I can do this,” he said.
He recently started working with a counselor to help him deal with his loss and strongly encourages those who have lost a loved one to COVID to consider doing the same.
“I urge you to seek this help,” he said. “Don’t try to carry it yourself.”
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