CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Jimmie Van Hooser had begged medical personnel to let her see her husband, Melvin, who was in Centennial Hospital fighting COVID-19.

“I didn’t see him for six weeks. I begged them to let me see him. I felt like he had a chance if he could see me, but they couldn’t because of the guidelines.”

She was finally able to do so — when she was told he was being put in hospice care.

“The day he died, they let me see him for seven hours,” Jimmie Van Hooser said through tears.

“His nurse saw him, and he was struggling. She came and gave him a shot. The nurses loved him. She pulled him up, a tiny little nurse, and sat him up in bed and hugged him. She said, ‘It’s been an honor.’ He passed about 30 minutes later.”

Melvin Van Hooser, 75, the retired Human Resources director at Trane and former Austin Pay State University basketball player, died June 1 surrounded by his family.

He was the fifth person in Montgomery County to die of COVID-19, his wife said.

Mystery weakness and then fever

Melvin Van Hooser was part of the vulnerable population, being a diabetic with various health issues. After waking up not able to walk, and then a five-day stay in the hospital to rule out stroke, he was sent to a 15-day stint in St. Thomas rehab.

“I picked him up after 15 days of rehab, and he looked horrible. The next day, home care checked in and they told me to take him in due to a fever,” she said. “I took him to Family Care, and he was diagnosed with COVID-19.”

After giving him a bath and caring for him, she took him to the emergency room at Centennial.

Seeing him wheeled away by nurses was the last time she saw him before the day he died, she said.

“It was hard. We thought it wouldn’t happens to us. If it can happen to us, it can happen to anyone. We were careful. We were so careful,” she said.

Remembering Melvin

Melvin was raised in Greenville, Ky., and was a “hometown hero” known for his basketball and baseball skills. He went to Austin Peay State University and played basketball for four years.

He was most known as the Human Resources director for Trane Company. He was hired in 1969 as an hourly employee and by 1974, began hiring hourly employees. He transferred to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1977 as relations manager, and again to Lacrosse, Wyoming, in 1981, where he served in Industrial Relations.

Melvin was part of the the “Magnificent Seven” who helped open a new plant in Pueblo, Colorado, in 1987, where he made a name for himself and ran a successful operation. He and his family missed Tennessee and returned in 1995, where he remained at Trane until his retirement in 2004.

His greatest love and accomplishment was his “wonderful” 44 years of marriage to Jimmie, and the family they had.

‘COVID is real’

Jimmie Van Hooser said she debated sharing her experience but said it’s worth sharing their pain if it helps just one person.

“I hate when people ask, ‘What did your husband die of?’ and I have to say the COVID,” Jimmie Van Hooser said.

“We are older, but we thought we had some more time, but we didn’t. … I know how it feels to come home to an empty home. When you wake up and he’s no longer there. That’s the hardest thing for me. I keep busy. You have to keep going, if you go down you will stay down.”

She said it’s important for everyone to take COVID-19 seriously and stop thinking it can’t happen to their family.

“If (this) makes one person think, then we’ve done our job of saying it’s real. If he can get it, anybody can get it. It’s a serious virus and it’s going to get worse.”