Santos G. Benavides Sr. was well know to his neighbors in rural Oklahoma Avenue on the southeastern edge of Brownsville.
At a spry 79, he could be seen tirelessly working on his backhoe doing jobs as an independent contractor. He was honest as the day is long and worked just as hard.
Last Sunday, just four days before his 80th birthday, the patriarch of the Benavides family died as a result of COVID-19 complications that aggravated a touch of pneumonia. He was buried at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Rose Lawn Memorial Cemetery. He would have been 80 Monday.
He was in the last week of a five-week stay at Veranda Rehabilitation & Healthcare in Harlingen after a pesky infection in his toe forced doctors to amputate it.
His family, aware that the rehab home had been identified as a virus hotspot, kept in touch constantly with him by telephone since health authorities prevented personal visits to prevent the spread of the virus. They said he was in fine spirits and that he was looking forward to celebrate his 80th birthday among his extended family.
His family says he assiduously washed his hands, used hand sanitizer, and wore a face mask and assured them he would be ok and not to worry.
Just days before he was scheduled to leave, attendants at the Veranda Rehab facility had tested him for the virus and found him negative. Then just two days later he came down with pneumonia that was aggravated by a COVID-19 infection and he died within a short span of four days.
Benavides, who had been a loving family man and loved to be surrounded by his extended family that included sons and daughters, grandchildren and great-grand children, died alone, unable to be seen by his loved ones.
Funeral ceremonies were out of the question because of social distancing and the prohibition of large gatherings. And when he was buried yesterday, the family was prevented to be graveside and had to watch from a distance.
Nuestros pesames a la familia Benavides y que en paz descanse.
20 comments:
My condolences to the family. On another note, his and many others' death from the Corona virus are needless and could have been prevented by early action and intervention. Great leaders such as F.D.R., Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Reagan, Bush (either), and Obama all had the mental capacity, moral leadership, and executive decision making capacity to head this awful virus off at the pass.
Never has our country suffered before under such awful 'leadership' as the one presently in office. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that he doesn't escalate any further the tensions in the Middle East or North Korea. We know that he won't cause problems with Russia because that would jeapordize the real estate and financial investments that he undoubtedly has made there.
Life is for the living.
I knew this man, he was a hard worker. He did work for me at by property. I am sadden to have heard of his death this way. My condolences to his family.
and so the bell tolls
truth be told no one cares in this town
it always comes down to family first and last!
sorry social media ppl it
dont matter how many likes or "friends" you have
"rural Oklahoma Avenue" - outlying, maybe.
All of Brownsville is rural, Montoya. smh
KNOWN COVID-19 CASES IN U.S.
TEXAS
NATIONAL
Total Tested
330,300
Confirmed
28,087
Deaths
782
Mar. 4
Mar. 23
Apr. 11
Apr. 30
0
20
40
Deaths by day
7-dayaverage
Total Tested
6,322,198
Confirmed
1,082,411
Deaths
63,457
When did they start not allowing family not having graveside services?
I know 2 families that lost a loved one and they were told only 5 immediate family members were allowed at graveside services. I go to the Buena Vista cemetery at least once a week, and last week I SAW with my own eyes preparations for a burial in which there were only 5 chairs in the covered up area and each chair was a good distance from another.
Local government officials in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, are dropping bleach water from helicopters in an attempt to eliminate coronavirus—despite health officials advising against it.
Univision reported that the city’s mayor, Armando Cavada, is having sodium hypochlorite sprayed over more than 800 acres of border neighborhoods because “it’s the same material, or sanitizer, used to disinfect operating rooms,” Cavada said — a substance that cleans “totally well.”
This morning, the helicopter was back at it.
ill be darned if some lame judge keeps me from being by my parents graveside
humble law abiding and poor but on that day aint no one keeping me away
if a nurse can travel to italy brung back a virus and face no consequences
then why shud a family member be kept from a love one's burial?
Yet our great mayor is reporting no deaths.
It didn't take long for someone to blame Trump for this poor mans death
Has anyone investigated Solara rehab. I heard someone was infected and passed away from complications too.
Abbott taking orders from Big business and licking Trumps boots for phase 1 opening. Phase 2 will be human casualties for not waiting 2 weeks as almost every medical expert has advised, yet Abbott and AG Paxton
Know more than the scientists as the coffers need to be filled, unfortunately it may be more coffins as the citizens of this state turn against each other while the virus knows no politics only a opportunistic pathogen brought to us from a far land while Trump sat idly by saying it would disappear in April and drink lysol. This is the wise king Abbott listens to not the constitution of this state or nation or the scientists. Abbott taking a big gamble with the people he is sworn to protect, the most important thing for Abbott is that Trump was bragging on him the other day when Texas opened up while the infection rate is on the rise in Dallas, Austin, Houston and the RGV. Let's see if Trump turns on Abbott in 2 weeks or continues to bragg on him.
Excuse me, but if he died at a Harlingen Nursing Home does that not add to the Harlingen Corona Virus death totals? Gentlemen passed iin Harlingen and got infected with virus in Harlingen, that would make it a Harlingen death due to Corona Virus. My Condolences To The Family.
It wasn't Trump who allowed Veranda Rehabilitation to share contaminated staff to care for our loved ones. I for one never knew about the sharing issue. These elderly HUMAN BEINGS pay a hefty price to stay in these facilities. Why did our so called local government, such as our governor, congressman, senators, mayors, commissioners, medical experts allowed such a disgrace to our elderly community. Our own Cameron county sheriff is over 80 years old and he is still allowed to function and participate in our community. This issue should be investigated and find out who allowed such corruption. The other question is to identify these shared staff and see if they are illegal or undocumented individuals who were willing to take a chance and who were their sponsors? I would hate to think that this was one of our medical experts who thought of such corruption. Sacrificing our elderly community for economic value is a disgrace and unacceptable. This is my opinion
It wasn't Trump who allowed Veranda Rehibition to share contaminated staff. God only knows' had it Not been for this horrible pandemic non of the residences nor the family member would have ever known about this sharing of staff. The question should be who allowed this sharing of staff in the first place.
a si es
Staff at nursing homes : no insurance, low salaries,
They have to work : to pay rent, pay health insurance, pay car payments,
IT is the USA....you have to work. Neighbors do not help you.
Government doesn't send you money to pay all your bills.
People work everywhere: They work at McDonald's and work at the Port of Brownsville, Teachers work at BISD and work at the Mall,
Brownsville herald reporters work here and there and everywhere.
It is what it is. Few people have a full time job now. It is the new way of earning a living.
That is why in a home or in apartment there are 10 people living together !!! Not many people can afford to own a home. You sleep on a sofa, you sleep on the floor, your kids get married and they live with you FOREVER.
IF his family knew about the infections at Veranda, why did this man go there? Why not rehab in Brownsville? Did he go there because his doctor recommended it? Because his doctor has an economic interest in Veranda? Why, if the virus had already killed patients there?
To those paranoiacs who think any criticism of Trump is part of a leftist conspiracy or group-think, it's not about blaming anyone, it is about holding our representatives in public office responsible for their decisions. Republicans, Democrats, Independents, etc. all deserve to be held accountable for the decisions that they make if they are elected to the highest office in the United States: the Presidency.
Our president has made some very bad decisions regarding our present COVID-19 health pandemic. His ill-conceived notions of the role of the federal government have prevented him from immediately mandating military assistance in COVID-19 testing and manufacturing and distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
The result is that we literally are 'a day late and a dollar short' in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. We can't be certain how many people have the COVID-19 virus and we can't protect our first-line health care providers for lack of adequate PPE. While I would prefer to believe otherwise, the saying that 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks' seems to apply well to our current president's seeming inability to add two plus two together and come up with four.
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