Name: After Dallas mother and daughter die of coronavirus hours apart, their family pleads: take COVID-19 seriously
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After Dallas mother and daughter die of coronavirus hours apart, their family pleads: take COVID-19 seriously

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6:00 AM on Jul 6, 2020 CDTAfter she lost her mother and sister to the coronavirus in June, Sherry Tutt guarded herself from the news and social media. It was too painful to see people return to normal life during a pandemic that stole so much from her.But she had to respond when she saw a Facebook comment on a local news story that downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus, saying it kills only about 2% of those who get it.“‘What if that 2% is your family?‘” she wrote back. “I lost my mom and sister. So that 2% still affects someone horribly.”COVID-19 devastated her family: at least eight relatives tested positive, including herself, she said. Two — her mother, Doris LaVon Sims, and her sister, LaKecial Tutt, both of Pleasant Grove — died hours apart on June 9, after spending more than two weeks in separate hospitals.They’re among the 395 people who have died from the coronavirus in Dallas County, where more than 25,000 people have tested positive. Each day, the county announces the number of new deaths and cases in tweets and news releases.Sherry Tutt, who lives in McKinney, follows the latest Dallas and Tarrant County case counts every day. The rising death toll brings tears to her eyes because she knows her mother and sister are included — and they should still be here, she said. She knows other families, whose loved ones are part of that nameless, faceless toll, must feel the same way.Tutt is reeling over the loss of her mom and sister. She’s also frustrated by people who treat the deadly virus with indifference, as well as what she sees as mixed messages from state leaders. Texas has reopened to some extent, but the governor urges people to stay home. On Thursday, he ordered most Texans to wear masks inside businesses and in public spaces when they can’t social distance.“You can’t say, ‘OK, we’re open. You have to go to work, but no, stay home too,’ ” she said. “Do you really care?”While some ignore health experts’ warnings and return to their pre-pandemic lives, Sherry Tutt is at a standstill.“It hurts me because I lost my mom to this, my sister — the only mom, the only sister I have,” she said, her voice wavering. “I look at the news and it’s just like, the world is going on and I’m stuck. … Because they were my world.”Sims was 59 when she died. She made everyone — even those who passed through the cafeteria where she worked at Dallas County’s criminal courthouse — feel like she was their best friend, her friends and family said. She was always ready for an adventure when her daughter wanted to take her on a trip.LaKecial Tutt, who died at age 44, was the family comedian and “life of the party,” her sister said. She never forgot a birthday.On that Tuesday, the day the two women died, Sherry Tutt got a call around 2 a.m. from Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite. A nurse told her that LaKecial, who was unconscious and on a ventilator, wouldn’t survive the night. The hospital continued to call with updates every hour until she died just before 5:30 a.m.The sun was up for the next heart-wrenching call — this one, from Medical City Dallas.It was time for Sherry Tutt to say goodbye to her mother.When she arrived, Tutt said she was allowed on the COVID floor, where her mother was on a ventilator and unconscious. The staff offered her a chance to enter her mother’s room — to touch her as she took her last breaths — but she said no. She didn’t want to expose others to the virus.“I knew that I was preparing for a funeral,” she said, “and I didn’t want to run the risk.”Related:Tutt’s battle with COVID-19 wasn’t easy, but nowhere near the fight her mother and sister ultimately lost. She has recovered — her sense of taste and smell returned a few weeks ago — but a slight cough and back pain linger.She said she, her mother and sister all took precautions against the virus. She wishes she could pinpoint where and how they were infected.“It could have been anywhere,” she said. “It’s not like we can just say, ‘Oh yeah, we had a big house party. And that’s where we got it all from.’ That wasn’t the case, you know?”The three gathered for Mother’s Day at Sims’ home, Sherry Tutt said. It felt good to be back in their company, “to fellowship, eat and laugh together,” she said.A little less than two weeks later, on May 22, Sherry Tutt said her life “turned upside down.” LaKecial Tutt, whose family called her Keisha, was already in the hospital when Sherry Tutt got a call from her mother, who was gasping for breath. She needed a ride to the hospital.In the weeks that followed, she would think her mother and sister were doing better. Then they’d take a turn for the worse.“I, to this day, can’t really sleep at night because at nighttime the hospital will call, wake you up in the middle of the night and tell you something bad,” she said. “You always say, ‘Tomorrow will be better. Mama, come on, push through. Keisha, come on, push through. Keep fighting it, keep fighting it.’”If they’d had the chance, family members would have been at the hospital, said Larry Tutt, Sims’ brother.“The absolute hardest part was the fact that we could not go out there,” he said. “Someone would have been at the hospital around the clock, holding their hand, saying, ‘Speak to me, squeeze my hand if you could hear me.’”But that wasn’t an option. After Sims and LaKecial Tutt were induced into comas and put on ventilators, doctors and nurses used their own phones to FaceTime the family, giving them a window into life inside the hospital walls.A group of relatives, usually at least eight, would dial in for nightly prayer calls to ask for strength and guidance. They prayed not only for Sims and LaKecial Tutt to recover and come home, but also for their medical teams.“They were ... instrumental in helping us with our emotions and the tension of us not being able to be there,” Larry Tutt said. “So it was just like, ‘Lord, please keep them strong and keep them focused, and keep them able to do what they’re doing. Most importantly, protect them while they’re caring not only for our loved ones, but the other ones in the hospital.’”Larry Tutt recalled how Sims — whose family called her “Von,” a shortened version of her middle name — had assumed the role of family matriarch after their mother died in 2010. She was one of seven siblings.“She just kind of became that person in the family we all looked up to, went to, called on, if nothing else, for an encouraging word or just some laughter,” he said.Sims was also beloved at the Frank Crowley Courts Building, where she worked for years in the cafeteria. Sherry Tutt said her mother was laid off around the start of the pandemic, and she was glad to be home as coronavirus cases climbed in Dallas.Related:LaFayne Draehn, who works in the technology department at the Dallas County district attorney’s office, knew Sims for years. She said Sims “always had a kind thing to say.” She was positive, upbeat and genuine, and she had a knack for remembering the people who came through the cafeteria lines, Draehn said.Tammy Goodman, an investigator with the DA’s office, said Sims always had a smile on her face. She treated everyone with respect, whether it was reciprocated or not.“No matter if you were a judge or if you were a defendant in that courthouse, she treated you the same,” Goodman said.Sims and LaKecial Tutt were “two lights in the family,” Larry Tutt said.In 2018, the family gathered for LaKecial Tutt’s graduation ceremony from Arlington Career Institute, where she’d completed the nursing assistant program. Larry Tutt said his niece was a “people person,” so working in health care appealed to her.“She was so happy because she felt like she had accomplished something she set her mind to,” her uncle recalled. “All of our family was there — we all went there to support her because that’s just the type of family we were. She was just so happy to walk across that stage.”Sherry Tutt said her sister had looked forward to the career change, but her own health issues prevented her from working. She had heart failure and was less mobile in recent years.As the family’s “social media guru,” LaKecial Tutt kept connected with extended family and organized gatherings, her sister said.“It’s always just been the three of us — my mom had me and my sister. She was really the life of the party,” Sherry Tutt said of her sister. “She was the fun girl.”In the days after her mother and sister’s deaths, Sherry Tutt kept busy. Now, with each woman laid to rest and her mother’s apartment cleaned out, the reality and the quiet have set in.“I’m lost, I’m confused, I’m angry,” she said. “I love them, and I miss them, and I feel alone without them.”Get email alerts on breaking news stories as soon as they happen.By signing up you agree to our

6:00 AM on Jul 6, 2020 CDTAfter she lost her mother and sister to the coronavirus in June, Sherry Tutt guarded herself from the news and social media. It was too painful to see people return to normal life during a pandemic that stole so much from her.But she had to respond when she saw a Facebook comment on a local news story that downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus, saying it kills only about 2% of those who get it.“‘What if that 2% is your family?‘” she wrote back. “I lost my mom and sister. So that 2% still affects someone horribly.”COVID-19 devastated her family: at least...

After Dallas mother and daughter die of coronavirus hours apart, their family pleads: take COVID-19 seriously

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