NORWOOD, Mass. — The daughter of a man who died of COVID-19 two months before his 100th birthday is calling on the community to take the virus seriously and protect themselves and others.
Charles Murray died at the hospital on Tuesday, separated from his family. His wife of 64 years, Pam Murray, 84, was also alone as her husband took his last breath. She, too, had tested positive for coronavirus.
“You always think when you marry someone you’re going to die together at the bedside,” the couple’s daughter, Christine Smith, told Boston 25 News by Zoom from her home in Nantucket. “He died alone. Nobody could come and see him. And my mom said it was the worst day in her life, and she just had to wait in her apartment for the phone call.”
As Pam Murray grieves, she is suffering with symptoms of the virus.
“She says she’s never felt sicker in her life,” Smith said. “And at the same time, I can’t imagine the amount of grief this woman is in. And I’m sure that that physically hurts as well.”
Smith had planned to celebrate one century of life with her dad by sharing birthday cards from residents of their new town of Norwood. The couple had moved from Florida to be closer to family, but they had not gotten a chance to know many of their neighbors before the pandemic hit.
Smith asked members of a Norwood Facebook group to send her cards, which she would then read with her father. She quickly began receiving dozens, with neighbors planning to throw a parade for him.
“I did not believe the amazing community that Norwood is,” Smith said of the love from the town.
After her dad died, Smith thanked supporters on Facebook and made one more request: that people wear masks and get vaccinated when they are eligible.
“It’s not about you. You may not get sick, you may not even have any symptoms,” Smith said. “It’s about the other person. It’s about somebody like my dad who is just going to pass on very quickly, because he has no reserves at his age.”
Smith is not sure how her parents contracted the virus given how careful and isolated they have been.
“That was a real wake-up call to me,” Smith said. “If these people are getting it, then the rest of us who go to the store and go to work and do all that other stuff are really at risk.”
Smith believes her father would have been proud his story is being shared to help save the lives of others.
“He’s not here. But I think he would approve and smile and say, ‘Yes, let people learn that real people die,’” Smith said. “COVID doesn’t happen to the individual; it happens to the family. When he died, a piece of all of us died.”
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