Union County teacher grieves loss of husband who died from COVID-19

UNION COUNTY, N.C. — Lisa Anthony is an eighth-grade math teacher at East Union Middle School, where masks are optional in the classroom.

Anthony and her husband contracted COVID-19 on the same day.

Her husband died at the end of September. The day of his funeral was Oct. 4, which would have been the couple’s 18th wedding anniversary.

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“He said, ‘My sweet beautiful, wife. I’m sorry things had to end this way,’” Anthony told Channel 9 Friday. “My husband was the sweetest person ever.”

Anthony said that although she can’t prove where they got the virus, she thinks the school district is being negligent by not requiring masks. Others at her husband’s job didn’t wear masks also.

[PAST COVERAGE: ‘We are scared for our kids’: Masks stay optional in Union County Public Schools]

Anthony said that although she can’t prove where they got the virus, she thinks the school district is being negligent by not requiring masks. Others at her husband’s job didn’t wear masks eitheralso.

She believes mask mandates would have made a difference.

“I just feel like the Union County School Board, they really have just dropped the ball,” Anthony said.

Anthony is vaccinated, but her husband was not.

She said he was hesitant despite her pleas for him to get vaccinated.

“I tried to convince him over and over again,” Anthony said. “I said, ‘This isn’t fair to me.’”

She said after he got sick, he kept saying he should have gotten the shot.

Anthony has taken a leave from teaching and said she feels lost now.

“We had so many plans and things we were going to do together,” she said.

The couple also got COVID-19 shortly after the district changed its contract tracing protocols and allowed quarantined students to return.

The district is relying on the health department to contract trace and make notifications of exposures.

(Watch the video below: Masks remain optional in Union County Public Schools)

Masks remain optional in Union County Public Schools

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