CONCORD, N.C. (WJZY) – The wife of a Virginia man who died in North Carolina from COVID-19 is speaking for the first time since her husband’s death.
“The hardest part was staying in quarantine and waiting to be able to bury him because it’s just not a good time to be alone,” Jean Spradlin said.
Her husband, Landon, died from the coronavirus alone in a hospital in Concord, N.C.
Landon, a traveling pastor and musician, had been in New Orleans with Jean, ministering to people after Mardi Gras.
Jean says her husband started feeling badly and went to the Veteran’s Hospital in New Orleans where he was given medicine and tested positive for the coronavirus.
Eventually, the couple decided it was time to go home to Virginia because Landon’s health wasn’t improving.
They stopped off in Concord where Landon collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital. He had double pneumonia.
Jean got to visit Landon, but that visit was interrupted.
“Three people suited up outside the door came in and said you are a danger to this hospital you have to leave right now.”
That was the last time Jean saw her husband alive.
“I’m just feeling sorry for myself because he was such a great guy. He always told me how beautiful I was and what a wonderful person I was and he loved me way more than I deserved.”
Jean is back home recovering from pneumonia. She’s had two negative tests and an inconclusive for the coronavirus.
She wants people who aren’t taking the virus seriously to remember words from one of her husband’s sermons.
“You need to treat every day as though it were a gift and remember you are not guaranteed tomorrow; nobody knows how you’re going to react to exposure to this.”
