Jon Coelho Danbury Connecticut husband/father pens notes app letter to family before coronavirus death describing how they’d given him the best life he could’ve asked for.
A Danbury, Connecticut father said he lived ‘the best life’ in a letter to his family that he wrote weeks before dying from the coronavirus.
Jonathan Coelho — who was only 32 when he died from COVID-19 Wednesday, April 22, had spent almost a month trying to fight off the deadly virus and had spent 20 days on a ventilator.
It while hospitalized and prior to his condition deteriorating, Jon Coelho penned the note to his wife, Katie Coelho, 33, and their two children Penelope, 10 months, and Braedyn, who is 2 and has cerebral palsy.
‘I love you guys with all my heart and you’ve given me the best life I could have ever asked for,’ the husband and father wrote. ‘I am so lucky it makes me so proud to be your husband and the father to Braedyn and Penny. Katie you are the most beautiful caring nurturing person I’ve ever met … you are truly one of a kind … make sure you live life with happiness and that same passion that made me fall in love with you. Seeing you be the best mom to the kids is the greatest thing I’ve ever experienced.’
The father continued by asking his wife of seven years to relay messages to his two children.
‘Let Braedyn now [sic] he’s my best bud and I’m proud to be his father and for all the amazing things he’s done and continues to do,’ he wrote. ‘Let Penelope know she’s a princess and can have whatever she wants in life,’ he continued. ‘I’m so lucky.’
The dad concluded the letter by letting his wife know that it’s OK to move on.
‘Don’t hold back and if you meet someone know that if they love you and the kids that I love that for you. Always be happy no matter what!’
Despite extra precautions the husband and father contracted COVID-19:
Jonathan had been fighting for his life at a hospital in Danbury for 28 days, 20 of them on a ventilator, when he suddenly went into cardiac arrest.
His wife rushed to the hospital, but arrived too late.
‘I was able to sit with Jonathan in the ICU after it happened and just sat, cried and told him how much the kids and I loved him,’ Katie wrote in an update on a GoFundMe started for the family. ‘When Jonathan’s phone was returned to me, I turned it on and there was a note up written by Jonathan the day before he was intubated.’
As of Friday night, the fundraiser had raised $253,173 raised of a $500,000 goal.
Katie told of being shocked to find the writings that were drafted in his notes app on his phone.
‘Even though he was fighting for his life for the past month, I know up until the last second he wanted to make sure the kids and I were OK,’ the mom told Buzzfeed News. ‘He knew he had to say something to me because I haven’t been able to speak to him in so long.’
Katie described her husband as a ‘hard worker,’ a ‘kind soul’ and ‘had a smile that made anyone feel loved, and a hug that made you feel secure’ in her tribute on GoFundMe.
Jonathan, up until becoming ill had been an essential worker for the state of Connecticut for over 10 years. It wasn’t immediately clear where or how he contracted the deadly bug.
Before becoming ill, the family had been taking extra precautions to stay safe because of Braedyn’s condition which puts him at a higher risk of contracting the virus. The father always wore gloves, masks and washed his hands frequently throughout his day at work, Katie said. ‘He was so super vigilant because he was so afraid of what would happen to our son if he caught it.’
‘lost their rock and foundation and they are beyond heartbroken.’
On March 24, Jonathan found out he had been in contact with someone who had the virus and tested positive, despite only experiencing minor symptoms like fatigue, migraine and no sense of smell.
‘Within 24 hours, he started coughing, and with the coughing fits, he wouldn’t be able to catch his breath in between,’ Katie told buzzfeed. ‘The doctor told him to go to the hospital because he’d probably need nebulizer treatments.’
After he was put on a ventilator, doctors believed the dad would make a full recovery, but his symptoms took a turn for the worse.
‘It’s unfair that Jonathan’s time with his family was cut so short,’ his wife wrote in her post. ‘Jonathan only ever wanted to be there for his children and wife and this virus stole that away from him.’
She added that their grief is insurmountable and that they’ve ‘lost their rock and foundation and they are beyond heartbroken.’
