A married couple who were both teachers in Texas died of COVID-19 complications while holding hands. Paul Blackwell, 61, and Rose Mary Blackwell, 65, died on Sunday at Harris Methodist Hospital, according to their family.
The couple spent several days in intensive care on ventilators as their conditions continued to worsen and their family made the heart-breaking decision to take them off life support.
“Two of my other brothers are actually in the room there at the hospital and they wheeled my stepmother in there in the room with my father and at the same time, removed them both from the ventilator,” Christopher said.
“They had them holding hands and they were both gone in a couple of minutes,” he continued. “I’ve never seen anything like that before and it’s hard to even put into words seeing that.” Both Paul and Rose Mary were long time teachers within the Grand Prairie Independent School District and had been working until they became sick in December.
Rose Mary was a second-grade teacher at Travis World Language Academy and just reached her 20-year anniversary at the school. Paul was a PE teacher and football coach at Fannin Middle. It is unclear how the couple contracted the virus.
A GoFundMe campaign set up by the Blackwell family to raise funds for the funeral cost says Paul and Rose Mary are survived by “many, many loved ones,” including their children and 20 grandchildren.
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