Numerous tragic stories have saddened the world during this time, and the following video reveals another heartbreaking goodbye. For four long months, JoAnn and Sam Reck were separated, after 30 years of love and marriage.
As JoAnn was living in a nursing home in Lakeland, Florida, all visitors, including her husband, were not allowed to visit her. Therefore, Sam would sit on his second-floor apartment balcony and his loved one would talk to him from the garden below.
This practice earned them the nickname “Romeo and Juliet.”
Yet, JoAnn was recently diagnosed with COVID-19 and she developed a fever, cough, and fatigue. She had written a living will that ordered doctors not to try and revive her with ventilators.
Therefore, the staff at the hospital explained to her family that there was little they could do, so they advised them to make her as comfortable as possible.
Her son, Scott Hooper said that he told Sam not to enter his mom’s room, and even though he agreed at first, he “later said he had to go, whatever the results.”
This determined husband risked his own life but decided to be with her one final time. There is no fear in love!
In her hospital room, with tears in his eyes, holding her hand, he said:
“You don’t recognize me with all this junk on my face, but it is Sam. I love you, sweetheart, I love you so much. I’m finally getting to hold your hand after all these months.”
JoAnn ended up dying hours after this encounter.
Hooper said:
“Here’s this 90-year-old man, he did risk his life to go see my mom, but that was his choice, that’s his freedom to do that. He knew what he was risking.”
His mother was diagnosed with dementia a year ago.
He explained:
“COVID was hitting her so hard and so fast. Anyone who has dealt with it knows what I am talking about because they don’t always remember you or know the situation they’re in or they think something weird is happening and you try to tell them it’s not.”
Hooper added:
“It was my wife who recorded the video and I remember everyone in the room was crying. I remember looking at my wife, she was crying so hard, she could barely hold the camera. It was a very emotional moment.”
Watch this heartbreaking video below:
