‘If I make it through this’: Man pens heartbreaking letter to wife before dying of COVID-19

DALLAS, Texas — The wife of a Texas man who died of COVID-19 is sharing a letter he wrote to her while he was fighting the virus.

Billy Loredo died Dec. 13 at the age of 45. His family told KWES-TV he became infected on Nov. 16 after being in contact with his secretary, who exhibited mild symptoms.

“She came in and said she felt like she had some allergies,” Loredo’s brother, Pete Loredo, said. “He told her to get tested immediately. She was positive and then he was positive.”

According to KWES-TV, Billy Loredo’s wife of 21 years, Sonya Kypuros, also tested positive.

Kypuros said her husband’s symptoms quickly escalated.

“He started to have mild symptoms. Like he would have a fever at night, but not all day long. For a week he actually seemed OK. But it just turned quickly south from one moment to the next,” she said. “He woke up early on Thanksgiving telling me that he was having breathing problems.”

The family decided it was best to admit Billy Loredo to a local hospital.

“For two weeks he was just trying really hard. He was trying his hardest to not be put on a ventilator,” Kypuros told KWES-TV.

Billy Loredo was ultimately intubated. Hospital policy did not allow Kypuros to be there with him, so the two video chatted.

“I kept telling him that he would be OK, that he would get through this and that he would come back to me,” Kypuros said. “It’s just awful that I couldn’t be there to hold his hand, and that he was fighting there for his life by himself.”

Before he succumbed to the virus, Billy Loredo wrote his wife a note that she shared with local news outlets:

“I want you to know that I am fighting very hard every day for my life. I do it for you so that I can see you again. You are the most important person in my life and I miss you everyday. I know I am not always the perfect man I want to be but I do my best. You for me have always been perfect even when I say you are not and I get mad. 99% of the time I am wrong and you are right and I love that.

“If I make it through this, I promise to be a better man, in God, in life, and as a husband. You have always deserved the best, and if I get a second chance, I will do it. If I don’t make it, I want you to know that I lived a happy wonderful life with you and would never have traded it for all the riches in the world. I also want you to be happy and continue to live your life without me and with no regrets. We had our time and it was wonderful. I love you and miss you very much. I will keep fighting. Love, Billy.”

Kypuros said she is heartbroken, but she hopes sharing her husband’s story won’t be in vain.

“Be mindful of who you could get it from or who you could give this to,” she said.

“I don’t know how this virus chooses or doesn’t choose its hosts to cause the pathological damage that it does,” Pete Loredo said. “If it finds the right victim, it is a killing machine.”

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