‘Dad, you’re going to have to be stronger than you’ve ever been, there’s a horrible disease,’ Jane Roche whispered into her father’s ear as an ambulance whisked him away.
Vincent Pettitt’s beard felt unfamiliar against his daughter’s face. She had not been allowed to visit her father’s care home for two weeks to groom him after the government enforced a nationwide Covid lockdown in March 2020.
Mr Pettitt, 86, had tested positive for Covid-19 and died in an overcrowded hospital side room five days later. His other daughter Jocelyn Pettitt, 54, died alone days later from the virus, six weeks before the birth of her grandson.
Mr Pettitt was one of 231,332 people who died due to Covid-19, according to the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice. Some 30,000 of those died in care homes as the virus tore its way through patients as staff complained of a lack of PPE amid confusing advice on whether people entering homes should be tested for the virus.
This week, explosive evidence to the Covid inquiry from the government’s then-chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, revealed Boris Johnson was “obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life” to get the economy running again. He said the former PM believed it was “nature’s way of dealing with old people”.
And the former boss of the NHS, Simon Stevens said then-health secretary Matt Hancock wanted to personally decide “who should live and who should die” if hospitals became overwhelmed at the height of the pandemic.
Families of those who died have slammed their comments as a “disgrace” and said they are an insult to their relatives.
Mrs Rothe, 53, an operations manager said: “What Boris Johnson has said about old people, I take that personally. He didn’t protect my dad, they have so much to pay for. I think the government that made these decisions need to be punished, thousands of people lost their lives.”
Mrs Rothe said their deaths would “haunt us for the rest of our lives”, adding: “They were snatched from us.
“My dad had so much life left in him, his zest for life was amazing. My sister was lovely and stunningly beautiful. It’s unimaginable, not being there for her, everybody should have beautiful end-of-life journeys.”
After leaving her father who died in hospital on Saturday 4 April 2020, Mrs Roche received a text from her sister’s partner John Elmore, 50, telling her her sister Jocelyn Pettitt was unresponsive days after she developed a chesty cough. She received a positive Covid result on Monday 6 April 2020.
She said: “I couldn’t go up to see her, everyone was keeping apart, her partner went with her to hospital. My niece rang me at 12pm, screaming and crying uncontrollably ‘mom’s not going to make it’
“We all went up and took it in turns to be able to see her but she was moved wards and visitors weren’t allowed in.”
Jocelyn, who was obeying lockdown rules died alone five days after her father, leaving behind her pregnant daughter Katie Osborne, 26, son Sam Byron, 34, partner John Elmore, 50, and two grandchildren.
Charlie William’s father Rex Williams, from Coventry, died aged 85, alone in a care home just days after contracting Covid in April 2020.
Jocelyn Pettitt was a punk in her younger life and in her final years lost her ability to hear, a few weeks prior to her death she had a cochlea implant fitted but didn’t get chance to reap the benefits
Mr Williams, 55, a community advisor, recalls the care home had no PPE or testing facilities and he had to fight for his father to be tested posthumously.
Speaking on Covid inquiry revelations, Mr Williams said: “It’s an absolute car crash, I thought module one was bad, module two now, it’s just absolutely despicable, it’s an absolute disgrace. It’s traumatic.
“He [Boris Johnson] had no regard for our country’s most vulnerable, he was putting career first and foremost before lives.”
Mr Williams recalled the pain of his popular father’s funeral which only he and seven others could attend.
Jane visited her father every day and made sure to keep him well groomed
Rex pictured in his younger days after he arrived as part of the Windrush generation with his partner Dorothy, 86, and worked as a manager at a plastics company
