A Texas woman spent a year planning her wedding, but due to coronavirus, she will never get to walk down the aisle. Tragically, Stephanie Smith passed away due to COVID-19 on November 18, five days after her wedding date.
Stephanie, 29, was healthy, and her death came as a complete shock to her family. They felt that she would be able to fight off the virus and looked forward to putting it behind them. She talked of marrying her fiance, Jamie Bassett, as soon as she was better.
“When I got the call [about her positive COVID test], it was awful, but I’ve had five friends who got COVID who walked away perfectly fine,” her brother, Aaron, told Buzzfeed. “And Stephanie is perfectly healthy, so I wasn’t worried that much.”
Her fiance told the outlet that she would suffer anxiety attacks in the morning, so they were concerned about her oxygen levels. Still, she would be much improved by lunchtime. Her brother worried about her being alone in the hospital since they were not able to visit her.
The day before she died, she was moved to the ICU to monitor her panic attacks better. A nurse told her mother she was “doing super,” according to Bassett. She texted him about 2 a.m., saying she wanted a Coke, and that was the last time he heard from her.
Shortly after, he got a call from her mom, letting him know the hospital called and were allowing her to see Stephanie in person. He knew that was not good news and braced himself for the worst.
He drove to the hospital with her mom, but the staff told them Stephanie had passed away when they arrived.
Bassett is adjusting to life without Stephanie. After Stephanie’s story went viral on the Twitter account “Faces of COVID,” he has received an outpouring of support.
“My grief and anguish has been focused on my own personal — the things that I’m missing,” he said. “Opening the door to the house and seeing her sit on the couch. Texting her when I solve something at work. Inside jokes, updates throughout the day, pictures of our dog. That kind of stuff.”
Like most of the country, Texas is experiencing a spike in the number of coronavirus infections. In Lubbock, where Stephanie was from, there are currently more patients waiting for hospital beds than can be accommodated. According to the city’s dashboard, it has recorded more than 31,000 cases since the start of the pandemic.
