COVINGTON COUNTY, Ala. (WDHN) — For the past 42 years, Alan Cotton and his wife Angie Cotton worked together on daily making arrangements for people’s special and not-so-special occasions.
That all came to an end when COVID struck.
“Ten days,” Cotton said. “The first week, she really fought, very weak through all of that. They finally did put her on a ventilator, and after the ventilator, she lasted about a day.”
Due to an allergy to medications, Cotton said his wife Angie was advised not to get vaccinated. This is why he is urging people to just do their part because they have no idea where Angie could have caught the deadly virus.
Cotton said he was never really able to say an official goodbye to his wife and best friend.
“We had to look at her through a window,” Cotton said. “I wouldn’t want that on anyone and that is very heart-tugging and very sad on our part and her part.”
The feeling of unbearable pain for a loss that could have been prevented, is the main reason why Cotton is begging fellow Alabamians to just roll up their sleeves and take their vaccine.
Cotton could only describe COVID-19 as “cruel.” He said every hospitalization and even death can be prevented if people just go out and get their vaccine.
COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are on the rise, but Friday, the Alabama Department of Public Health reported the vaccination rate has also increased for every one of the state’s 67 counties.
Cotton told people to really think about the suffering the virus causes not only to the victim but also to their families when they are deciding not to get vaccinated because in his wife’s case if more people were vaccinated she could possibly still be here arranging bouquets.
“Her lungs were completely filled with COVID, there was just nothing they could do about it,” Cotton said.
