US-based Filipino frontliner couple get COVID-19; only one of them survives

Her heart may have stopped, but his will continue beating for her all his life.

Filipino-born Noel and Rory Leon are health workers in New York City who have been infected with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Noel has been living in the United States for 26 years now. He is a nurse at a health care facility, while Rory was a unit secretary at a hospital. 

Noel was eventually cured of the disease, but his wife Rory succumbed to it.

Rory was Noel’s childhood crush, but the two wouldn’t get together until years later. It all began when they met at the wedding of a friend in the Philippines.

“She was there and I saw her, and I knew it was her,” he said. “Parang serendipity. It’s like meant to be. It’s like fate, you know, they put us together back.”

By then, both had been separated from their former spouses, with whom each of them had children—two for Noel and five for Rory.

They started dating in 2000 and got married six years later, after his petition for her to move to US was approved.

New love, new life

“She became my new life. She gave me another life, another chance in life, in love,” he said.

Rory was a civil engineering graduate, but she never got to practice her profession because she focused on taking care of her family.

When she moved to the US, however, she embarked on a career in health care.

According to Noel, they both started feeling ill as the pandemic began.

They both isolated themselves and planned to do self-treatment at home.

Noel even tried to convince Rory to quit her job, but she refused.

Their condition got worse, especially for Noel, so they decided to have themselves admitted at a hospital.

“I was coughing blood, I was urinating tea-colored urine, mahirap, ang sakit ng katawan mo. The disease will put you in bed and not let you move,” he said. “I was thinking about death already. And I was trying to say, ‘Lord, diyos ko po, kunin Ninyo na po ako kung kukunin Ninyo ako.’”

Noel eventually got better after four days of treatment. Rory, meanwhile, had to fight for her life for more than a month.

He returned to work immediately after he was cleared of the disease. “The first day I went back to work, pagdating sa parking lot, I put my gear ready, my mask. I broke down. I started crying.”

Helpless

“So sad broke down and cry. I’m at work and I couldn’t help my own wife fighting for her life in another hospital. Feel so helpless!!” he then shared on Facebook.

“I’m here trying to help other people survive. Meanwhile, my wife is trying to fight for her own life and I couldn’t even be there for her,” he said.

He spoke with his wife and cheered her up through video calls with the help of their nurse-friends.

“Sometimes I yell, ‘Hey Rory you can’t give up there,’” he said. “Because I know, in a way, may connection.

Until the day he feared arrived.

Rory calls Noel on the phone to pick him up at 10:45 a.m. every day.

On May 6, 10:45 a.m., the voice on the other line sounded different—it was the doctor, telling Noel that Rory had passed on.

“‘Your wife’s condition turned to worse, and her heart stopped.’ That’s how they say it.”

The hospital staff asked Noel to come, so he went, in full protective gear. But when he saw his wife, he removed his mask, said goodbye to her and her kissed her one last time. “A tear came out of her left eye, so she heard me,” he said.

“I just prayed to God, sabi ko, ayaw ko mang sabihin sa mga bata na I’m giving up pero at that point, I said to God, ‘Kayo na ho ang bahala.’”

One last time

Rory’s first-born, Rogee, expressed her sadness that they couldn’t see their mother one last time.

“I can’t go to New York, I’m here in the Philippines,” she said while crying. “I’m trying my best to be strong.”

“I wish I could hug you and kiss you one more time. I wish I could cook for you one more time. I wish I could make you laugh one more time,” Rogee wanted to tell her mom.

The wake was held via live video streaming, and a funeral service was attended by family and friends on June 2.

“She had given me the best days of my life. It breaks my heart, to the inner core of my soul, to think that nothing will ever be the same again. I love you my darling Rory,” said Noel during his speech at the service.

In between tears, Noel recalled their happy moments together.

“We lived our life like it’s the last day of our lives. She’s my travel buddy, we go places, we go to a lot of countries. It’s like a honeymoon stage for the past 15, 16 years,” he said.

“Sa akin marriage is like a communion of two souls. It’s very sacred and if one passes away, a part of you goes with her,” he added.

“I love you very much and thank you for all the years that [you] have given me. I miss you so much Rory. There is no one in this world that made me so happy. Rest in peace. ’Til we meet again.” – RC, GMA News