A father of six from Texas died on Thursday from COVID-19 just two days after he received a positive diagnosis for the disease spread by the CCP virus, according to his family.
Brenda Johnson, Mendez’s daughter, said he was “perfectly healthy” and was tested last week for the virus before receiving a positive diagnosis for the CCP virus on Tuesday.
“He was kind,” Johnson said of her father. “He was patient. He cared about others. He loved his family so much. He was very involved in our community and our church.”
His wife, Angela, issued a warning about the viral pandemic.
“You hear that the people who die are older, or have previous health conditions, but he was neither and the virus took him down hard,” she told the newspaper. “It can happen to anyone, it’s not just a story that happens to people across the world. It’s here and it’s real and it can kill anyone, just like it did my husband.”
Pastor Ray Still of Oakwood Church, who praised Mendez’s character, also told the paper that residents should take the virus warnings seriously.
“They need to listen to both our elected and health officials that are giving us advice and not to ignore this,” said Still.