Both Reed and his fiancee started feeling ill about the same time. Since COVID-19 was raging around them, they decided to get tested. Both were positive. Reed’s fiancee started to get sicker. Reed not so much. He had a bit of a headache and a slight cough but it seemed nothing too serious. Meantime, his fiancee was suffering strong symptoms of the virus.

Though not very concerned about the illness, Reed went with his fiancee to the ER to be looked at. Within the next 12 hours he went from teasing his fiancee about her symptoms to lying in a hospital bed in the ICU. One day later he was unable to draw breath and was intubated. Within the next five days he expired. Meantime, his fiancee recovered and is doing well.

I am the oldest brother, well into my 60s, and if I was a betting person, would have put money on myself to die from this horrible disease before any of my other brothers. Reed would never have been considered a candidate for COVID-19 let alone to be killed by it. He was our youngest brother and should have lived to attend our funerals. But this virus is a master of irony and sarcasm. It seems to choose victims for maximum effect; leaving stunned survivors to feel guilt and sorrow about their own fortune to avoid the grave. The virus did not however, manage to destroy the value of Reed’s life and the love he gave to others. My love for my youngest brother lives on.