DENVER — More than 2,800 Coloradans have died from COVID-19, with a record 1,300 nursing homes across the country reporting three or more cases of COVID in the first week of November.
Jeremy Meyer recently lost his mother Christy Forrestal, after she contracted COVID-19 in a Westminster nursing home. He wants people to remember that every one of the COVID-19 numbers reported by the state represents a person who leaves behind families and loved ones.
Meyer warned others to take every precaution seriously to stop the spread of the deadly virus over the holidays.
"Somebody who was a staff member brought in that virus and who knows how they got it and they probably didn't even know it," said Meyers. "And then my mom got it and died."
As soon as he was told his mom's symptoms were worsening, Meyer looked up the safest way he could visit her.
"I got masked up with the N-95 mask, gloves, garment, a face shield and I went in and the CDC guidelines said to stay six feet away and only stay 15 minutes," he said.
He said it was hard but necessary. "Even though every urge inside me wanted to go and hug her and grab her hand," he said. "But, I stayed six feet away."
If he can do that when his mom was in her final days, he hopes others can do that during Thanksgiving.
Meyer remembered his mom as an artist who loved colors as he reflected on a piece of her art. "This, she always called it her masterpiece, she called it her Matisse."
They're colors he now misses. "On her last night on Earth, I stayed with her only 15 minutes and said goodbye and had to leave," Meyer said. "She died alone in a little room in a nursing home."
Meyer said on the morning he got the call from the nurse that his mom had died he walked outside.
"It was Wednesday morning and I walked outside in the back patio and there was this brilliant sunrise." Meyer said he can still see the beauty his mom painted, "I really feel that was my mom saying goodbye."
Meyer hopes others see what their loved ones bring to their life too, "She was a very caring person and we miss her."
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