According to a California mother, her teenage son committed himself after feeling guilty for his father’s death from Covid-19.
Stephanie Reyes, 37, claimed she and her family were diagnosed with Covid-19 in August of last year.
Anthony, her 46-year-old husband, died in September as a result of the disease’s consequences.
“My family and I contracted Covid-19 towards the end of August, and I lost my spouse in a couple of days,” Reyes explained.
She said that her teenage son, Anthony Reyes Junior, 17, had begged to visit his father before his death. The teenager held himself responsible for his father’s death and illness as he had insisted earlier that the family come to his school for a pep rally, she said.
“He felt guilty. He felt like he was the one who got us sick. He felt like he was the reason why his dad was gone and we talked to him all the time, and told him ‘It wasn’t your fault,’” Ms Reyes said.
She claimed the adolescent, who had fought with depression during the pandemic, struggled to cope with his father’s illness and death.
Mr. Reyes was allowed two family members to visit him at the hospital before he died.
“My son wanted to go see his dad [and] against my better judgment, I let him go. It was the worst mistake I did,” Ms Reyes said.
On 28 December, Ms Reyes found that her son had ended his life when she found his bedroom light on at 4am.
“He was gone. I couldn’t believe my baby’s gone,” she said.
Ms Reyes has two other children, both daughters, aged 15 and 18.
“All my kids, they lost their dad. I can’t make that pain for them go away,” she said.
“But my son, he was more worried about us than he was worried about himself.”
In 2020, Anthony Jr had written about how he struggled in isolation with schools closed during the pandemic.
“Coronavirus was mainly a burden for me because it forced me to distance myself from my friends and my girlfriend,” he wrote in August 2020.
“That’s what caused my depression but then I luckily got better and thankful that I am a happy little boy today.”
Ms Reyes said that she had tried to get counselling for her son after her husband’s death but counsellors were booked for months.
The family has now found a counsellor and are getting therapy once a week to cope with their losses.
A GoFundMe page has been created to help the family with the costs of a funeral service scheduled for 22 January.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
