AUSTIN, Texas – An open letter was sent to Gov. Greg Abbott from a woman whose mother died of coronavirus inviting him to attend her mother’s funeral, The Austin-American Statesman and CNN reported.
The letter entailed a personal invitation to attend Isabelle Odette Papadimitriou’s funeral. She was a respiratory therapist who became one of the 525 Dallas County individuals who died so far from COVID-19. Papadimitriou died on July 4, less than a week after testing positive for the virus, with no underlying health conditions.
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“My mother was a frontline worker and she didn’t have the option to Netflix and chill. ... She had to go to work,” Fiana Tulip, the author of the letter and daughter of Papadimitriou told CNN. “Whether these frontline workers want to be heroes or not, they don’t have a choice.”
Her letter according to The Statesman detailed Papadimitriou’s funeral arrangements in Dallas and in Brownsville, where she will be buried. She also described how her mother documented her diagnoses in a journal from the time she exhibited symptoms of the coronavirus to her last breath.
“She waved off our family’s suggestions to go to the hospital, as she knew it was at capacity,” Tulip wrote. “Unfortunately, by the time my brother called the ambulance to help her, it was too late. When they reached the hospital, my mother had already lost her pulse at least three times.”
Tulip said the governor didn’t do enough, fast enough.
“As hospital beds filled up across the state, you finally issued a statewide mask order on July 2, too late to help my mother. There will be far more deaths of Texans than there needed to be,” she wrote.
She wanted Abbott to see in person what COVID-19 has done to her family.
“I invite you to her burial to witness our family mourning this incredible woman who gave her life to save others,” she wrote. “If I can manage a safe funeral, you can manage a safe state and prevent these unnecessary tragedies,” Tulip concluded.”