Remembering those we've lost to COVID-19
Since COVID-19 first showed up in the United States, millions of people have become infected and thousands have died.
Here's a look at some of the lives we've lost to COVID-19 and the stories of their battles.
Donald and Mu Cha Gannon
On what was supposed to be an Oklahoma couple’s 56th wedding anniversary, their children were planning their funerals rather than purchasing gifts.
The children of Donald and Mu Cha Gannon shared the love story between their mother, who is Korean, and their father, an American veteran.
The Gannons' children also discussed their heartbreaking journey with COVID-19 and what they think needs to change within hospitals.
“My dad, especially his symptoms, like declined real fast. And we couldn’t be advocates for them,” Virginia Marshall said.
Learn more about the Gannons' story in the video above.
Donald and Mu Cha Gannon tested positive for COVID-19 in late July.
“They both got the plasma and the remdesivir. None of that worked,” Marshall said.
It didn’t take long for them both to be in the intensive care unit.
“We were begging, ‘Let us go in there with our dad. Let us go in there.’ They said, ‘No, no no.’” Kathy Schultingkemper said.
"Please, let us go in there and just touch him,” Marshall added.
Donald Gannon fought the virus for two weeks.
“We had to go to the window to tell my mom, 'Dad’s not making it,'” Marshall said.
Mu Cha Gannon, who was in the same ICU, was not allowed to see her husband.
“The hardest part was when we’re standing there telling my dad goodbye, my mom was, like, FaceTiming my dad. It breaks my heart they couldn’t even wheel her across the room so she could touch him,” Schultingkemper said.
Their love story was 56 years in the making. It ended in a coronavirus unit on FaceTime.
“It was just completely heartbreaking,” Scotty Gannon said.
After Donald Gannon passed, the family moved their mother to a different hospital.
“And the hug that she gave me is something I will cherish for the rest of my life,” Marshall said.
Capt. Kelly Raether
A Wisconsin fire department and community mourned the death of a first responder from COVID-19 on Thanksgiving.
Capt. Kelly Raether, 42, was a member of the Ixonia Fire Department and also worked as a nurse and college professor.
Coworkers, who believe Raether contracted the virus while on a call caring for a patient, said she embraced a life of service.
Ixonia Fire Chief Dave Schilling said he was with Raether on an ambulance run last month and learned a day later the patient tested positive for COVID-19.
"Myself and my other partner, we were OK and she was the one that ended up testing positive," Schilling said.
Raether was hospitalized a few days later and her condition kept getting worse.
"(I) talked to her on the phone quite a bit, a lot of text messaging back and forth," Schilling said. "She was absolutely convinced that she was going to go into the hospital, get straightened out, and come back out again and go about her normal life again."
Schilling said Raether's is considered a line-of-duty death.
"(Her) locker will remain empty. I'm not gonna replace (her). No one is going to be going into that locker," he said.
Zack Starrett
Zack Starrett's family will tell you he lived for the outdoors. An active, healthy, happy 33-year-old man who loved to travel and spend time with his longtime girlfriend, Michelle Rauenswinder, and their dog, Doug.
Starrett died in Pittsburgh nearly two months after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
"He is, and will continue to always be, such a light," said Zack's brother, Josh Starrett.
Zack Starrett's battle with COVID-19 started in early October, according to his family. There was some shortness of breath, followed by a string of painful migraines that ultimately led Zack Starrett to take himself to a nearby hospital.
"They diagnosed him with COVID-related double lung pneumonia and COVID-related heart failure," Josh Starrett said.
Zack Starrett fought for weeks as his organs continued to fail.
"It was devastating," Michelle Rauenswinder said. "It just slowly and progressively got worse. He was literally not able to catch his breath."
The family's goal now is to try to protect others by sharing Zack Starrett's story. Hoping it may be a reminder to some about the devastating impact that can be made by this virus.
"I just hope that people listen and people are paying attention because this is very real and it does not discriminate," Josh Starrett said.
"Our lives are forever changed and if we can save another family from this, it's worth it," Rauenswinder said.
Sylvia Garcia
After weeks of fighting, a beloved teacher lost her battle with COVID-19.
Sylvia Garcia, a 60-year-old teacher at Las Cruces Public Schools in New Mexico for years, died on Nov. 29, weeks after contracting the virus.
"She was a courageous woman, who stood up for all of their loved ones here in Las Cruces, their students, the parents, the teachers," her son, Dominic Garcia, said. "My mother even went all the way, and fought for teachers' rights with the governor. She sat at the round table."
Short in stature, but loud in personality, his mom was full of life, Dominic said.
"To watch somebody so strong, just be turned into somebody so weak," he said.
In October, Sylvia began experiencing COVID-19-related symptoms. Later that month, she was admitted into a hospital. Dominic said she was still making calls from the hospital bed, trying to help students.
"While she's in the ICU, she was there still fighting for these students to have a better education," he said.
Dominic last spoke to his mom on Nov. 11. He said she gave him a thumbs-up before she was intubated, and after fighting the virus for several weeks, Sylvia died 18 days later. Days before, Dominic said he and his siblings spent Thanksgiving standing outside of her hospital room window, just to be by her side in her final days.
"I don't think these people realize, the ones who don't believe it, how hard it is to stand outside of a window and watch someone like your mother alone, with strangers in there," he said. "I couldn't be there for her, because of this virus ... because of everything that's going on."
Anna and Leo Barron
A New Hampshire woman who lost both parents to COVID-19 shared their story in hopes that it will provide peace to other families who have lost loved ones.
Linda Barron lost her mother, Anna Barron, and father, Leo Barron, within hours of each other. She said she wanted to tell the story of the life they shared because, like many people who have passed away from COVID-19, they were not just a statistic.
“Every Saturday night, my dad in the suit. My mom in the shoes. Yes, they ballroom danced for over 25 years,” Barron said.
Their bond stayed strong even in their later years when their health started to decline.
“They got Alzheimer’s, dementia, at the same time,” Barron said. “They actually needed assisted living at the same time. So, they declined together, but their love shined through. Like, my dad always wanted to make sure my mom was taken care of.”
In April, Leo Barron was diagnosed with COVID-19. Anna Barron tested positive in May.
The two were eventually moved to a hospice hospital together, sharing the same room.
Linda Barron said even as her father battled the virus himself, he never stopped making sure Anna was OK.
“He fought and fought and fought,” Barron said. “He just kept saying, ‘How’s your mother? I love your mother. I love your mother.’”
Leo lost that battle on May 29, his beloved Anna died May 31 on what would have been Leo’s birthday.
“My mom and dad had the comfort of each other, the love of each other,” Barron said. “Their passing couldn’t be more beautiful, to be able to pass laying by the person you love and the person you were married to for 58 years.”
Barron said the support her family received from the hospital staff that took care of their parents really helped them get through this difficult time.
She wants other families that are going through a similar situation to know they are not alone in their fight.
Frances Jordan Banks
Frances Jordan Banks was born during one pandemic and recently died from another.
The 102-year-old woman became one of Maine's COVID-19 deaths last summer.
Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, often says each person who dies from coronavirus complications is not just a statistic and that each one is someone meaningful to someone else.
Shah mentioned Banks' June 2 death and how her case was marked by some of the most historical events of the last two centuries.
Banks was born in 1918, at the end of World War I, in Cape Elizabeth, in the midst of the influenza pandemic that's believed to have claimed millions of lives.
During her nursing career, she enlisted in World War II as an Army nurse. She was known for her wry sense of humor.
"My friend and I decided we were going to save the world," she told a film crew from the Cape Elizabeth Historical Preservation Society in 2016. "I went in for the war, I probably should have stayed. I probably would be a general by now."