I’ve written many times of Rob. He was only 49 when he passed from long Covid complications. He contracted Covid in late June 2020 and was a frontline worker in Anderson, SC. It was just the three of us. We have what will soon be a 14-year-old daughter who was the light of his life.

What many didn’t know was his nickname — it was Pocket. Pocket came about because in the days after our daughter’s birth she would hold onto his t-shirt pocket in the hospital and fall asleep. From that point on, that was always the best way she was able to sleep or find comfort.

When he came out of the hospital after 81 days in the ICU, he was changed. He suffered from PTSD, awful lung damage (he had about 50% function in each lung when he came out), fatigue, chronic pain, endurance issues, and so much more. He was gaslit by all his doctors all the way up to the week prior to his death. They all kept ignoring our pleas for help and told us to wait and see. He was on supplemental O2 as well.

His job fired him in January 2022 because he asked for reasonable accommodations when they decided to close down the small location he was working at and merge into a location by the Anderson airport that was about 4 football fields wide. From there his health only got worse. The week prior to his death, he was admitted to the cardiac ward for chest pains etc. They ran a stress test and blood work and sent him home, still in pain and ignoring us once again. Within a week he would die of a massive widow maker heart attack brought on by complications of long Covid.

What you need to know about Rob, and about us, is that we loved each other deeply. He was our everything and now because of his death we face life alone. Covid took everything from us. However, memories of a loving husband and father remain. He was funny, caring, and a big push over when it came to his little girl. You wouldn’t have found someone so proud of his family as Rob. He even had a “I love my wife” shirt he bought and loved telling other wives it was his idea just to see the looks on their husbands’ faces. (And yes, it was all him).

I would have been married this year to him for 12 years. He was and will always be my one and only. He would also be proud to know that his daughter has gone on to help advocate for long haulers and to push past all of this to join the Seneca High flag line, which is totally out of her comfort zone.

Remember: when you hear about long Covid, know that so many are suffering just like Rob was. I love you Rob … Always, after all this time.