Sunday, March 14, 2021 marks one year since the first COVID-19 death in Lane County. KLCC revisited the grim anniversary with the widower of MaryKay Alexander. She died March 14, 2020 at the age of 60.
Brian Alexander has had a year to reflect on both the pandemic and the death of his wife of 22 years. He himself was the third official case recorded in Lane County, and has only seen that number surpass 10,000 cases – with over 130 deaths – in the time since.
Alexander hopes people continue to take COVID-19 seriously, even as case numbers begin to wane. He has plans for when the pandemic has abated.
“Going to Hawaii, actually. Not necessarily because it’s a great place to go although I’m looking forward to vacation aspect of it too, but MaryKay was from Hawaii, she was born in Hilo and lived her first 30 years there.
"So I’m going to go back and spread her ashes in places that meant a lot to her.”
Alexander still works for the 4J School District’s transportation department, and has just received his second Moderna shot.
A year after losing his wife, he says it’s still challenging to move past the loss.
"There’s plenty more people now but starting back in March, it just seemed like every day there was a new story about COVID, and every day was like a little dagger in my heart. Because normally if your spouse passes, you get some time to reflect on it and people stop talking about how they died. So that was one thing for me that I had to get over, was being triggered by all the coverage about COVID.”
Alexander says currently, he's going through some old belongings in the home and donating items to St. Vincent dePaul and Goodwill. He has no plans for the anniversary of MaryKay's death, but acknowledges it'll be on his mind constantly come Sunday. He adds that he tries not to dwell on his wife's death, as he feels that she'd have wanted him to move on and enjoy life as much as he can.
Copyright 2021, KLCC.
