Sandy Brown Grand Blanc Michigan woman loses both her husband of 35 years and only child to coronavirus in the space of three days.
A Michigan woman has lost her husband of 35 years and her only son to coronavirus within three days of one another.
Sandy Brown a Grand Blanc realtor along with her son 20-year-old Freddie had to watch as the loving husband and father lost his fight for life in the intensive care unit of a Detroit hospital.
Her son, Freddie Lee Brown III was admitted to hospital just after his father, Freddie Lee Brown Jr., 59, was taken ill. Both ended up in the ICU.
Freddie Facetimed his mother from the hospital as she attempted to comfort him, singing lullabies to him according to The Detroit News.
He died the following day leaving his mother all alone without any family.
‘There’s not even a word created to describe my pain. It’s unimaginable,’ Sandy said.
The agony of saying goodbye to both her husband and only child was compounded by the fact that Sandy was unable to be with them during their final moments.
Even at either men’s funeral, Sandy was able to find comfort in her grief.
‘Calm down – I’ll be fine. It will just be a few days.’
‘You feel helpless,’ said Andy Torok, who was Freddie’s high school football coach.
‘You can’t go to the house and tell them it’s going to be all right.’
Sandy was married to Freddie Jr., a retired produce clerk, for 35 years.
She became pregnant at the age of 40 and gave birth to Freddie III. The couple called him their ‘miracle child’ after she suffered several miscarriages before finally conceiving.
Freddie III was a student at Mott Community College and into his football. He dreamed of playing for Michigan State University.
He husband started to feel unwell around mid-March after going to bed shivering and waking up sweating.
After becoming tired and sick, he was unable to consume any food or water and was taken to Ascension Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc Township.
Freddie Jr., had known underlying health conditions after he had a kidney transplant in 2012.
After having trouble breathing he was placed onto a ventilator despite his wife attempting to prevent the move because it would see him being placed in to a medically induced coma.
‘Calm down,’ he told her over the phone. ‘I’ll be fine. It will just be a few days.’
Sadly, three days later his lung collapsed and she was called in the middle of the night to tell her that he was about to pass away.
Sandy did not make it to the hospital in time and she was even told that she would not even be allowed to see her husband’s body.
‘I’m going in that room,’ Sandy recalled insisting. ‘I don’t care what I have to do. I’ll sign whatever I need to sign.’
Staff dressed her up in protective equipment with a mask, gloves, gown and glasses.
According to The Detroit News, Sandy was able to walk up his body, touch his hair and rub his cheek and neck as she said her own farewell.
Just one day later, her son who has asthma suddenly became sick with a fever and persistent cough.
During the night he could be heard panting and so his mother took him to the hospital the following day and he soon began to feel better.
Sandy was so pleased with his progress, she posted a jubilant message on Facebook.
‘Every church I enter I will be shouting down the aisles!’ the mother wrote. ‘So please excuse me now for my disruption! Do you hear me! I will be shouting the victory in your face!’
But her elation was short lived as her son Freddie’s condition suddenly worsened.
And then the dreaded news arrived….
Sandy received a call from the hospital telling her to come immediately. Her son passed away soon afterwards.
‘In three days, I lost my husband and son to an ugly plague,’ Sandy said. ‘I watched my son go from completely well and whole and happy to being gone in three days.’
As friends and relatives came by to comfort her, they were not even allowed inside her home for fear of the virus spreading, although Sandy does not appear to have it.
‘This is so hard to sit through, knowing I can’t love on my family,’ said Cassandra Dukes, Sandy’s goddaughter.
‘It seems so unfair,’
On Friday, Sandy buried her husband and son. Throughout the trauma, she has turned to God to deal with her grief.
‘Medical science says I should be traumatized,’ she said. ‘I had a traumatic experience twice. I should be banging my head against the wall.’
‘But God said no. I’m standing here in the strength of the Lord, not strength of my own. God has got me.’
The service was live-streamed over Sandy’s Facebook page.
Just 25 people were allowed to attend the funeral with everyone having to wear masks.
At the cemetery, nobody was allowed to leave their cars as both coffins were lowered into the ground.
‘It seems so unfair,’ Sandy said. ‘I can’t even give them a proper burial. I just have to put them into a box and put them into a hole.’
She is calling her husband and son her guardian angels.
‘You guys are going to be looking over me,’ she said to herself. ‘And I’m going to need it. I’m going to need it.’
