Family of Chicago 911 dispatcher who died of COVID-19 devastated by loss of mother too
Guadalupe and Maria Lopez were both taken by COVID-19 in a matter of weeks
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Less than a month after a beloved Chicago 911 dispatcher died from COVID-19, his wife now joins him in peace.
The husband and wife were both taken by COVID-19 in a matter of weeks, leaving their three grown children, along with their grandchildren, unable to say a proper goodbye.
"My 8-year-old, Austin, keeps asking if we can ask Santa to bring our dad back to him and now I have to tell him about my mom," said the couple's daughter Erika Lopez. "We put our tree up but our friends have been coming to decorate the house because we just, none of us can do it. It's so hard."
Standing outside the Archer Heights home where they were raised the Lopez family remembers their parents, Guadalupe and Maria, as both loving and hard-working.
Guadalupe, also referred to as Lupe, was a longtime 911 dispatcher at Chicago's Office of Emergency Management, where he was memorialized earlier this week; and Maria had an income tax business in Little Village.
They both went into the hospital on November 8, where Lupe passed away a week later. Maria held on a little longer but also lost her battle to COVID-19 Friday. They were both in their 50s.
"My last conversation with my mom was over the phone while she was in the hospital," said their son Andy Lopez. "I told her I missed her and I loved her. That was pretty much it."
"To know they are no longer suffering and they are with each other, it brings some sense of relief and peace," said their other son Ricardo Lopez.
RELATED: Family, friends mourn Chicago 911 dispatcher who died of COVID-19
Over 13,000 people have died from COVID-related complications in Illinois since the start of the pandemic. Over 200 souls, including Maria's, reported just Saturday. It is why their children continue to speak out, hoping that if their story will help save just one life, it will be worth it.
"There is a king-size bedroom in there with two people who are never going to come back to it. That is something I want the world to know," Ricardo said.
Since their story first went public, the Lopez Family said they have been inundated with support from every corner of the city. Now they just want to say a big thank you to everybody for their love, but above all else, to the doctors and nurses who took care of their parents over the last month.
