‘They did everything together’: Couple dies of COVID-19 days apart
One South Carolina couple died of COVID-19 just 48 hours apart. They died within two weeks of getting sick.
Bonnie and Hartley Cruver’s son, Dan Cruver, says they were being careful and doing all the right things throughout the pandemic.
“We didn’t see this coming," Cruver said.
Cruver's parents even shared a birthday, so in a way, there was no other way to lose them than together.
His parents met at work in the music industry and bonded over music.
“They did everything together,” Cruver said. “Not just their home life together, but their work-life together. They deeply love each other.”
Bonnie and Hartley would have been married 56 years in March.
Suddenly, one day in December, just before Christmas, the Cruver family’s lives turned upside down.
“To go from making decisions about dad to then having to make decisions about your mom when you’re already emotionally taxed and drained,” Cruver said.
Cruver's mother got sick on Dec. 23 and tested positive for COVID-19. Just days after that, he says his father started to get sick and had a bad fall that sent him to the hospital. At the hospital, he tested positive for COVID-19 too.
“The very next day, my mom’s oxygen numbers dropped into the 60s, so we called 911,” Cruver said.
The couple’s family also wasn’t able to see them due to COVID-19 safety restrictions. Cruver says his father’s condition started to get worse in the hospital. Eventually, he refused to eat or drink anything.
“He said, ‘I just need you to stop trying to save me,’” Cruver said. “So they put him in hospice.”
Once his father was moved to hospice, Cruver explained that’s when he and his brothers knew it was time to start saying their goodbyes. They had about two days to visit their father in hospice.
“I was just telling how a great dad he was,” he said.
Cruver’s father died on Jan. 4. The next day, he says they got a good report about his mother, until her condition suddenly took a turn for the worse.
“The new shift doctor came on and had a nurse call us and say, ‘She’s not doing well at all. Get the family here.'"
A few hours later, on Jan. 6, Bonnie Cruver died, just 48 hours after her husband. After decades together, their deaths signified their bond.
“Them dying two days apart made sense,” Cruver said.
Cruver is still processing the grief each day. He encourages everyone to be intentional in their communication with their parents because they never expected something like this to happen.
“I still have the impulse to text my mom every single day, or to swing by their house on the way home,” he said.
In some of his last words to his parents, he told them the great parents they had been, and how grateful he was for their time together.
“We’re OK,” he said. “You’ve raised us well. Loved us well.”
Cruver says they’re planning a COVID-19-safe funeral for his parents on March 27, which would’ve been their 56th wedding anniversary.