On another floor, Margaret Zerbel, 77, looks to have made it past the worst of the virus. Her husband of 41 years did not survive his bout with COVID — family members held his funeral while Zerbel was still hospitalized.
This is from a hospital in Wenatchee, so it should resonate with MU.
The couple roamed the country in an RV for more than 25 years as part of their retirement, Zerbel says. For years they returned to Republic, Ferry County, for their summers after discovering it while attending an RV rally.
“It’s miles from anywhere, there’s no fast food, there’s no car dealers, it’s slow, it’s quiet, it’s small,” she says. “I love small towns. I hate big cities.”
Ferry County — where Zerbel was first hospitalized — is also one of the least-vaccinated places in Washington. There, only 45% of people 12 and up have gotten at least one shot.
Zerbel says she and her husband were “kind of iffy” on getting vaccinated. But they had planned to get their shots once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to the Pfizer vaccine.
That approval came Aug. 23, just weeks before the couple fell ill, says Zerbel, adding “we didn’t get there in time.”
“I don’t know if we maybe should have gotten vaccinated sooner — well I know we should have, because we were going to,” she says. “But then I don’t know, this may be God’s plan for us, and whatever. I can’t look at God’s timeline.”
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