This couple relaxed their Covid-19 stance and lost their lives as a result. They wished others would take it seriously.

For a loving couple who had spent half a century together, Leslie and Patricia McWaters were quite different when it comes to certain things. 

Patricia, 78, was highly disciplined, according to her family. And of course, she had to be, as a nurse for 35 years in a hospital in Jackson, Michigan. Leslie, 75, also known simply as LD among his friends, was a truck driver with a great sense of humor, the family said.

But the two also never left each other’s sides. They had two daughters, three grandkids, and six great-grandkids. And when they weren’t on the road, they loved hosting all kinds of family get-togethers.

They lived in unison, and that is how they left this world.

Leslie and Patricia passed away on November 24, in the same hospital due to Covid-19.

“Those of us that know them, know that mom went first and said, ‘LD, it’s time to go!” the obituary read.

Joanna Sisk, one of their daughters, told the Washington Post that her mother was always in charge.

At parties, it was always Patricia at the grill. And when she was a nurse, she helped every new worker who needed assistance, according to Joanna.

“She would take you under her wing and teach you everything she knew,” she said.

This couple relaxed covid-19 stance and died from it. They wished others would take it seriously. https://t.co/WuyILa8qMM

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 1, 2020

Joanna believes that her mother would want their unfortunate end to be a lesson for all.

After months of being chained by the coronavirus restrictions in Michigan, the couple decided to let their guard down. Just before the virus struck them down in November, they went to a restaurant where people were not wearing masks and were walking around freely.

The couple, just like many other people, had developed the attitude of:

“I want to get out and live my life, and if I get covid, so be it,” Joanna said.

“But I can tell you after they got covid, they were both extremely regretful because they didn’t really take their own words to heart that it would actually take their lives,” she added.

Before he passed away, Leslie told his daughter that he wished others knew how extremely painful the symptoms of the virus were.

He was just a shell of his former self in his final days among the living when he assured Joanna that his body would withstand the virus.

A while before the virus struck them, Leslie was with family, filled with joy when his 10-year-old great-grandson, Maxx, repeated one of his favorite one-liners after his sister stubbed her toe:

“It’s too far from your heart to kill you!”

“My dad just beamed from ear to ear,” Joanna said. “It meant everything to him.”

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