Face behind the statistic: 56-year-old man dies of COVID-19 after family gathering

St. John's County, FL. — A 56-year-old St. Johns County man died of COVID-19 in April of this year, following a family gathering in Tennessee.

His wife spoke only to Action News Jax reporter, Meghan Moriarty, about what her family has endured since his passing, and urged people to take the virus seriously.

“I’d hate that my husband is a statistic, because he’s so much more than that,” Theresa Crowe said.

Crowe said her family got together at the end of March, before they knew much about the impact of the virus.

Her husband started showing symptoms, so the entire family got tested.

Eight people tested positive for COVID-19.

“My mother, also fairly severe, she had a blood clot in her gastrointestinal system, and they had to remove 70% of her intestines,” Crowe said. “My sister also had surgery due to COVID, so it’s really impacted my family fairly severely.”

The biggest impact was on her husband. He was on a ventilator for 21 days at Baptist South where he died.

“He was a little overweight, but aside from that he ran all the time. He walked the dogs every day. He was active,” Crowe said.

“There’s really no underlying issue aside from the COVID. That really just hit him hard.”

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56-year-old died of COVID-19

As of October 6, there have been 74 deaths in St. Johns County. Clay County has had 107 deaths.

Duval has had the highest number of deaths in our area with 438 deaths.

Nassau has the lowest with 48 deaths.

Overall, there are 14,767 deaths throughout the state of Florida as of Oct. 6.

The now-widow wants her husband to be remembered and to remind people that each number has a face behind it.

“He was just such a great, beautiful person, and the fact that you see these numbers roll across the TV screen, you worry that each personal story is not felt,” Crowe said. “The reason for doing this interview is you don’t want someone in your life to become a statistic or number. I want him to be remembered.”

Cox Media Group