Say their names : Vicki Greco

Vicki, mother of my gentle and sweet colleague Ed Greco is dead, after 3 weeks battle, a victim of US government's inaptly handled pandemic. She was 62, active, and in perfect health. She worked as a nurse here in Atlanta screening folks that walked into her clinic. Ed had to remove her off life support after she fought with COVID-19 for almost four weeks. It completely destroyed her healthy lungs. In one of her last conversations with Ed she complained that people wouldn't put on a mask or would lie about their symptoms when they walked into the clinic. "Be really careful everyone and don't trust leadership to make the right decision for you personally" says Ed, who is quietly very very angry.

Ed's tribute to his mother:

Victoria Greco, age 62, passed away June 25th 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia after battling COVID-19 for three weeks. Vicki was born into a large Italian-American family in Passaic, NJ just months before she and her extended family relocated to Orlando, Florida. She grew up surrounded by siblings and cousins with grandparents just two houses away. She could be quiet and unassuming just as easily as she could be fierce and indomitable, a contradiction in character that earned her the nickname “rooster”. Vicki had a passion for new adventure and learning. She loved to read and her house is filled with an eclectic collection of books, bottles, and maps. She loved to fish in the surf at dawn, ride motorcycles through the misty mountains and small towns of Appalachia, and explore the ancient paths of our National Parks with her husband. She was the type of person you could call and invite on a trip, exotic or mundane, and the answer would always be an enthusiastic yes!

Vicki lived a life in voluntary service to the well-being of others, often caring for and sheltering the sick and destitute in her home. This was a kindness she and her husband also extended to nature. At home, Vicki would often be found tending to the native plants and pollinators in her yard while her adopted dogs slept lazily nearby. When she turned 50, she realized a lifelong desire to work in medicine and enrolled in nursing school. After graduating, she moved to Atlanta to help raise her granddaughters and began a second career in pediatrics. Her white hair, brown eyes, and silly scrubs brought smiles to many children and their families.

At the core of Vicki was a love for family. Making Christmas cookies with her grandmother, Sunday dinners at her Dad’s, cooking holiday meals with her sisters, sun kissed at the beach with her husband and granddaughters, she was happiest when she was surrounded by those she loved. For those who loved her, she was an unbreakable rock that could shoulder any burden you placed at her feet with grace. Survivors include her husband, Richard Hooker; son and daughter in-law Edwin and K. Elizabeth Greco, mother, Carole Bertone; father and stepmother, Anthony and Sallie Greco; brother, Salvatore Greco; sister, Elizabeth Kulow, sister, Karen Kania; sister, Janice Manley; granddaughters: Madeline, Miranda and Margaret Greco. She was preceded in death by her son, Anthony Hooker. In lieu of flowers, please watch a sunrise, jump feet first into a cold Florida spring, and wear a mask in public.

Do listen to the May 29th NY Times -The Daily "One Hundred Thousand Lives" podcast, commemorating the first 100,000 US victims of the Trump pandemic.

About Ed: storycollider.org Marriage stories about making it work (July 1, 2019)