Remember Lives Lost: Family mourns Lydia Nunez, 34, who died of coronavirus
By EEW Magazine Online // Associated Press // Peter Prengaman
Family and friends were left devastated when Lydia Nunez, who always had jokes, hugs and lots of love for everyone, died from the coronavirus at age 34.
She was the “glue” that brought people together, said family members.
Eryanna Banks, left, carries photos of her Aunt Lydia Nunez, who died from COVID-19, in front of her mother Erika at the end of the day following a memorial service and burial for Nunez Tuesday, July 21, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Nunez, who was diagnosed with diabetes at age 8 and gastroparesis in her early 20s, was the one who remembered birthdays, spoiled her nieces and nephews and brought a spark to any room she entered.
“Where’s the party at?” was one of her favorite phrases.
After finishing high school, Nunez wanted to become a social worker and began classes at a community college. She also slimmed down, getting into Zumba classes and closely managing her diet. But her gastroparesis, a condition that prohibits the stomach from properly processing foods, significantly complicated life for her.
Relatives of Lydia Nunez, from left, sister Erika Banks, mother Lorraine and father Samuel sit together for the funeral of Nunez. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Over the next 10 years, Nunez would suffer a constant cycle of stomach pains, medicines, surgeries and hospitalizations. Things would improve, and then something would trigger another wave. Once, after Nunez vomited all over the couch and living room floor in the middle of the night, she woke her mother up. Writhing with stomach pain, she lamented that she had become a “burden.”
“God gave you to us. I’ll never get tired,” Nunez’s mom recalled telling her daughter. “I know sometimes you wake us up in the middle of the night. It’s OK. I want you to come to me and dad first. You are a part of both of us.”
Early this year, before the coronavirus took hold in the U.S., Nunez was enjoying a long spell of good health. Things were going so well that she went on a vacation to Oregon with her mother, her sister Erika and nephew Jesse. When they returned from the trip in mid-February, cases of coronavirus were beginning to emerge in the U.S. The family took every precaution, knowing that Nunez was fragile.
On May 23, the fear the family carried for months about Nunez came true: she got sick again, this time rupturing an intestine that required a major surgery. There was no way to keep her at home, no way to keep her from hospitals where people were being treated for coronavirus.
After surgery, she steadily recovered, until late June, when was diagnosed with the virus. She died July 5. Now the family is left wondering if they could have done something differently, but mostly they just miss Nunez.
“I don’t even know how to tell people that I only have one child now,” said Lorraine Nunez, who spends some time sitting in her daughter’s room, holding a favorite headscarf to feel closer.
According to a New York Times report, the US accounts for about 4 percent of the world’s population but 22 percent of its confirmed Covid-19 deaths. As of September 3, the death toll topped 186,000 and is expected to exceed 200,000 by the end of September.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of stories remembering people who have died from the coronavirus around the world.
