“I went to sleep having 10 aunts and uncles! Friday I woke up and found out I only had 9. Just a few minutes ago I found out I only have 8,” a relative said.
By Minyvonne Burke, Caroline Radnofsky and Kurt Chirbas
The heavy toll of the coronavirus pandemic is hitting one large New Jersey family especially hard.
Three members of the extended family have died within days of one other, and four others are hospitalized, three of them in critical condition.
Their plight, first reported by NJ.com, began with the death of Rita Fusco-Jackson, 55, on Friday. She was the second person in New Jersey confirmed to have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.
Fusco-Jackson’s death was the beginning of a nightmare, as her brother, Carmine Fusco, of Bath, Pennsylvania, also tested positive for the virus and died Wednesday. Hours later, their mother, Grace Fusco, died at the age of 73.
Four other of Grace Fusco’s children remain in the hospital, three in critical condition. About 20 other relatives are being quarantined in their homes, The New York Times reported.
“If they’re not on a respirator, they’re quarantined,” relative Roseann Paradiso Fodera told the Times. “It is so pitiful. They can’t even mourn the way you would.”