A woman who lost her husband to the coronavirus last summer is urging the public to keep following public health guidelines.

Margaret Brady’s husband Richard died last May, a month after being admitted to hospital.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, she spoke of their final days together.

“I wasn’t feeling well and I was in the bed for a few days,” she said. “Richard wasn’t feeling well either but I wasn’t aware of how sick he was because he didn’t say – he was always afraid of being sick.

“His symptoms were very different to mine but he had a bit of a temperature and when I rang the doctor, he arranged a test for him. About two days later he wasn’t getting any better and the doctor told me to bring him in.

“When I went in on the Monday afternoon, on April 6^th the doctor said, ‘I think this man has COVID or a serious chest infection, we’ll have to get an ambulance.’

“The ambulance came, Richard walked on to the ambulance and I never spoke to him again.

“A month later he passed away.”

Richard Brady. Image: RIP.ie

Margaret said she never got the chance to say a proper goodbye – although doctors allowed her to see Richard in hospital shortly before he passed.

“The day before they turned off his machine, they asked us to in to see him,” she said.

“That was the first time we met the doctors. They told us that nothing was working. His organs were too bad. His lungs were destroyed with COVID-19 and he also had bacterial pneumonia because of the machine he was on.”

Grief

She said COVID-19 restrictions made it far harder to deal with her grief.

“It was so different. It was so hard,” she said. “It is like I have had no closure.

“The hearse was brought to the house. There was no church because the undertaker told us the priest wouldn’t have the coffin in the church because he would have to sanitise the church afterwards.

“Apart from that, we never saw the priest anyway from this day to that – and the church is only 200 yards away from us. The priest never made contact with us ever.”

Restrictions

She said her neighbours line the street on the day, which was “really lovely;” however, her family and friends in Cork and Dublin were not able to travel.

She urged people across the country to follow the public health guidelines while they remain in place.

“Unless you go through this you think it is not going to affect you,” she said.

“Some people get this disease and it is not as bad but some people get it and they are quite sick – and I know a few people like that. That is only in the last few months but when Richard died there was nothing and people thought, ‘ah sure we’ll leave it’ but now I can see how bad it is and people have to start listening and keep your masks on.”

You can listen back here: