An unvaccinated Virginia couple in their 40s recently died of COVID-19, leaving behind four children — and the dad with one tragic regret before he succumbed.
“He called me up and said, ‘Mom, I love you, and I wish that I’d got the shot,’” said Terry Mitchem, the mom of Kevin Mitchem, to Washington DC’s NBC 4.
She and other relatives of Kevin and his late wife, Misty, are urging people to get immunized.
“Please get it,” Kevin’s father, Don Mitchem, told the station through tears.
“That virus will take you at any age. But taking a mother and father is, it’s uncalled for,” he said.
Misty — who had four children ages 11 to 1 with Kevin — died of the virus early this month. Kevin — who had previously brushed off his parents’ advice to get vaccinated — succumbed to it a few days later, according to the article.
“We’d just say, ‘Hey, Kevin, let’s get the shot, buddy. It’s not going to hurt you,’ ” Don Mitchem recalled.
He said his son responded, “’Oh, I know. I’m all right. I’m not going to get the shot. I don’t need it.'”
But Kevin’s reluctance soon turned to regret after Misty died and his own condition worsened, the outlet reported.
That’s when he called his mom and told her he loved her and wished he’d been immunized.
“Of course I told him, ‘It’s past. You can’t do anything about it,’” Terry Mitchem said.
The late Stafford County couple had met in high school, the outlet reported. Kevin operated heavy equipment and helped his father with side jobs to support his family, kin said.
“He was always working to make ends meet and so forth. He loved his kids — always doing something with them,” Terry told the station.
The couple’s children are being cared for by an aunt in South Carolina, the outlet said.