MP's double tragedy after father-in-law dies of coronavirus
A federal MP has revealed her father-in-law was the 30th person in Australia to die from coronavirus a tragedy that came the same week her brother-in-law also died of an unrelated cause.
Labor MP Ged Kearney took to social media to post an emotional tribute to her late father-in-law, Mike, who died in Canberra Hospital on Saturday, urging people to take the COVID-19 threat seriously.
The 82-year-old was the ACT's second coronavirus death.
Ms Kearney, who is the member for Cooper in Victoria, said her father-in-law had done his best to isolate but became sick suddenly, and was admitted to hospital and died seven days later.
“In fact I believe he only went outside a couple of times in the whole month to shop,” she said on Facebook.
"We actually teased him because he had bought 5kgs of rice and 10 tins of chickpeas and 10 cans of tomatoes – for just him and his lovely wife, Wendy. Panic buying we said! But of course it was the right thing to do."
The MP went on to say that death in the time of COVID-19 was hard as Mike's Canberra family, including his wife, were in self-isolation and must grieve on their own.
Ms Kearney expressed how “death in the time of coronavirus is hard” as it meant her family could not gather as they normally would, not for her father-in-law or brother-in-law.
“My sister’s husband died, not of the virus, but still, died too young and again we cannot gather as we would normally do. I can’t hug my sister and her children,” she wrote.
“We have to wait. And wait we will. In the mean time we zoom and call and text. It is a poor alternative but it is all we have.”
She also thanked Australians for doing the right thing by staying at home during the pandemic, but urged people to not become immune to the numbers.
“Every death is sad and felt deeply by someone. I know most people are finding kindness and helping out at every turn, and I am feeling the caring nature of our community first hand,” she said.
“I know you know what you must do to curb the deaths, I don't need to tell you. Please - Just do it, and keep doing it.”
In Australia there are almost 5700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the country with 34 deaths.
The daily rate of cases has been gradually easing from as much as 30 per cent a couple of weeks ago to single figures in recent days.
– with AAP
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