After surviving a painful bout of the respiratory disease caused by COVID-19, Chicago Heights City Clerk Lori Wilcox has a message to share.
She hopes in particular the message reaches young adults, like the group of at least 50 people recently caught on video rubbing shoulders at a home in Chicago.
“They do not realize they’re about to go home and kill their parents, or their grandparents, or their coworkers or their colleagues,” Wilcox said.
People should heed advice to wear masks, practice social distancing and stay home as much as possible to avoid getting sick, she said.
“You just have to go through the process and hope that you’re one of the individuals that sees the other side,” Wilcox said.
Wilcox, 43, spoke on a conference call Thursday with her sister, Michelle Riggins, 38, of Park Forest. Riggins, a nurse practitioner at an area hospital, also recovered from the coronavirus, she said, as did their father.
“(Work) is very emotional right now,” Riggins said. “You see a lot of death. You have to call family members to let them know their mother or father expired.”
In other instances, Riggins said she has had to call family members and ask their permission to remove a patient from a life-sustaining ventilator.
“There is so much that I have never experienced since I’ve been in this profession,” Riggins said.
Riggins and Wilcox said they both served in the U.S. military along with a third sister. Wilcox served 15 years in the U.S. Army Reserves, with tours in Bosnia, Korea, Germany and Japan.
“We’re all combat war veterans,” Wilcox said. “We’ve all been to war. This is more traumatic than being away at war because these are people (dying) that you have known all your life.”
Wilcox said she shared pictures and messages about her experience on social media this week because she was concerned that some seem to treat the coronavirus pandemic too lightly.
“Nothing else matters but my family and health right now,” she wrote. “The moment you realize you may never see your children again, the wake-up call happens.”
The illness felt worse than the pain she felt during childbirth, she said.
“When you go through labor, the baby comes then it’s all over and you have this beautiful baby,” Wilcox said. “Going through (the coronavirus) experience, you don’t know when it’s going to end.”
Wilcox said she and her three school-aged children live with her parents. The family’s experience with coronavirus began March 20, when her father got sick, she said.
“For a few days he just laid in bed,” she said. “My mom would be like, ‘Get up.’ Finally, he went to the hospital.”
None of the family members was admitted to a hospital for treatment, Wilcox said. Riggins said she experienced symptoms in late March, tested positive for COVID-19 and stayed home from work for eight days.
Wilcox said she suddenly became seriously ill on March 30.
“It hit me like a ton of bricks,” she said. “I just sat down one day on the couch and said, ‘I’m so tired.'”
Wilcox said she remained in bed for eight days. She finally went to the emergency room, she said, because she couldn’t keep any food down.
“It steals your energy,” Wilcox said.
She said she also had the chills.
“I had on a sweat suit, socks, three blankets and a space heater in front of me,” Wilcox said. “I had the chills but I was still sweating and I had a migraine. Everything that I ate came up.”
Wilcox said she and her father lost 35 pounds between the two of them.
“You know women always want to lose weight, but not this way,” Wilcox said.
Riggins said she experienced nausea, fever and upper-respiratory symptoms and lost her sense of smell.
“I didn’t have as bad as symptoms as they did,” Riggins said.
Riggins said after she returned to work it was difficult to witness the continuous loss of lives.
“That’s the sad part about it, is how these people are taking their last breaths and their family members can’t be there,” Riggins said.
Hospitals have restricted visits in an effort to slow the spread of the deadly disease. It’s difficult to talk by phone with family members and tell them that a loved one is dying, she said.
“That’s the worst part,” she said. “They can’t be there to comfort them, to tell them they love them, that they were a great parent, friend or family member. It’s really sad.”
One could hear the pain in Riggins’ voice as she spoke about the experience.
“I cried so much at work last week,” Riggins said. “I was just imagining our dad. It could have been our family in that position.”
Wilcox and her family’s experience with COVID-19 occurred just after the March 17 primary. Wilcox was one of four candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the 40th District state Senate seat held by Patrick Joyce, D-Essex. She finished second, behind Joyce.
Wilcox is serving her third term as city clerk in Chicago Heights. In 2011 she became the first person elected to the position, according to a biography on the city’s website. The post paid an annual salary of $10,000 in 2017, according to a Better Government Association database of public salaries.
She also serves as president of the Chicago Heights Free Public Library Board and is Democratic committeeman for Bloom Township, an elected position. She is past president of the Rotary Club of Chicago Heights. She is pursuing a doctorate in leadership at Governors State University in University Park, she said.
Throughout her professional career in public service, Wilcox has emphasized community outreach, collaboration, partnerships and mentoring young people, according to her biography.
Wilcox said she didn’t intend to post on social media about her family’s experience with coronavirus but the viral video of the crowd at the weekend party changed her mind.
“I didn’t want to post about it but I was talking to a friend of mine and he said, ‘Lori, you really need to talk about it for the younger generation.’ (The decision to post) started with me seeing that party online.”
Twitter @tedslowik1