A woman from Spokane lost her 16-year-old husband to COVID. Now she’s asking others to get vaccinated.

August 31, 2021 6:55 PM

Posted: August 31, 2021 6:55 PM

Updated August 31, 2021 7:04 PM

SPOKANE, Washington – Alive, a selfie king, husband and father, all things Carlos Matthews described.

However, he was one of more than 700 people who lost their lives to COVID-19. He was only 43 years old.

His wife Stefanie Matthews says she still tries to take it day in and day out.

“He was a family man, he loved his kids, he loved me, he loved life, everyone, and knowing he was there alone was probably the hardest part,” she said.

Carlos went to the Holy Family Hospital on April 28th with a cough and never came home. The last time Stefanie heard his voice was just before the doctors put him on a ventilator.

“He just wanted to say, ‘Tell the kids he loves them,'” she said. “And at that time, when we were much more hopeful, and you know we were, we will see you soon. That will be fine and we will be there when you wake up. “

At that point she still thought he had come home.

Carlos would have been vaccinated, but just a week or two before his death, vaccines were available to the general public.

“I know if we were able to speak to him, my husband would have done anything to make sure no one else would be able to talk to him,” she said.

Stefanie was able to say goodbye to her 16-year-old husband.

“We still had the rest of my son … We had the rest of his basketball games. We were graduating and all of this stuff was still very fresh so it was really painful, ”she said.

Stefanie says that because of Carlos, many of his friends and members of her motorcycle club were vaccinated.

“If there is anything you can do to avoid getting this virus, you should do it. And you should trust the doctors, we shouldn’t do our own research to find out, ”she said.

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