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Florida man, 90, dies 3 weeks after donning protective gear to say goodbye to COVID-19 positive wife

LAKELAND, Fla. — A Lakeland, Florida, man has died three weeks after swaddling himself in protective gear to sit at his wife’s bedside and tell her goodbye as she languished with COVID-19.

Sam Reck, 90, died Saturday after contracting the novel coronavirus after visiting his beloved wife of 30 years, JoAnn Reck, at Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center on July 12, WFTS reported.

Holly Reck, one of Sam Reck’s two grown children, told The Ledger that her father most likely fell ill after visiting JoAnn Reck, but nothing could have stopped him from carrying out the reunion.

“There wasn’t anything any of us could have done to have talked him out of that. He would have gotten himself there one way or the other to see her. I do believe that,” Holly Reck told the newspaper Monday.

Meanwhile, JoAnn Reck’s son, Scott Hooper, wrote on Facebook that he asked his stepfather if he regretted the visit to the hospital.

“Without pause he replied, ‘Not one second.’ He said no matter what happens, he was very happy he had the opportunity to say goodbye and hold her hand one more time,” Hooper wrote.

According to WFTS, the couple had been separated for months after the state of Florida placed a ban on visitors at nursing homes amid the pandemic.

“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,” Hooper told the TV station at the time of the visit.

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