BRADLEY COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — One particularly heart-wrenching story comes out of Warren, a town in Bradley County.
A family's dream trip turned into their worst nightmare after their beloved mom and wife died from COVID-19 while her son and husband recovered from the virus.
Two weeks later, they are deep in their grief, but they're speaking out tonight so that people will take coronavirus seriously.
"Fortunately, I have fully recovered, but my family has been irrevocably changed due to the illness," Rob Reep said as he bravely reads an editorial he wrote for the Saline River Chronicle.
"My mother passed away from complications from the virus on April 18 after a month plus long battle at St. Vincent Infirmary."
His mother was 63-year-old Beverly Reep.
"She was about as perfect as a person can come, in my opinion."
Beverly was a beloved Bradley County teacher, mom, and wife to the former mayor Gregg Reep.
"I think she's probably why I got elected several times and I was always glad she didn't run against me, because if she had've, she would've beat me," Beverly's husband Gregg said, all smiles while thinking of so many wonderful memories.
Yet, his grief is more than he can bear at times. Rob, Beverly's only son, recalls her selflessness, sharing his mother's greatest legacy.
"She loved everyone— maybe not everyone but she did love," he said through tears.
Beverly retired just a few years ago. She wanted to spend her years traveling and last year planned a dream trip—"the trip of a lifetime" as her family calls it—to Europe. She gave it as a gift to her son, his wife, and her husband.
They say it was the greatest week followed by a month-long nightmare.
The family was aware of coronavirus, but in late February and early March, when the trip was scheduled, it hadn't reached Arkansas.
There were no travel bans in place either. After nearly canceling it, they took the advice of health professionals and their travel agent and decided to go, a decision that haunts them to this day.
Rob said even though they took every precaution possible, "it still found us and it was still nasty and it still ripped our family to pieces."
Through the years, Beverly made a name for herself for hosting summer trips to Washington DC, she even managed to gain access to the white house when President Bill Clinton was in office. Many years as a history teacher meant countless students passed through her classroom.
She never forgot even one of their names.
While Rob and his father Gregg have fully recovered from coronavirus, they did so while grieving, their sweet Beverly, who didn't recover.
"I want to caution my fellow citizens to not underestimate this virus. I've lived it.
While my experience wasn't too severe, I paid a price far greater than I ever wanted to pay. I lost my mom."
As with any COVID 19 death, the Reeps couldn't be with Beverly when she died.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Reep family and every family grieving a death due to COVID-19.