Members of one Etowah County family are recovering from coronavirus, but at a terrible price - of nine members infected, three have died, two on Saturday. Six have been hospitalized.

“People have got to wake up,” Tyrone Posey said. “This is a message.”

Posey’s wife Phacethia died April 13. He is just now recovering from the virus that also claimed Phacethia’s father Billy Ray Woods, and a cousin, Michael, yesterday.

Members of the Woods, Posey and Porter families are staying quarantined currently in Gadsden, trying to overcome the effects of the virus. They would like to get retested, but they can’t find any place locally that will test them, they say.

Phacethia’s sister, Kyra Porter, is an Anniston resident currently staying with family members. As she recounts the story, her words are punctuated by a persistent cough.

“Everything happened quickly,” she said.

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Posey’s son, Tyrone Jr., was the first member of the family to get sick. But then, Billy Ray Woods became ill, sometime around the middle of March. Soon, all of the family began seeking testing.

Kyra Porter, for example, said she had all of the signs of COVID-19 - fever, cough, chills, body aches, headaches and shortness of breath. But when she asked for a test at a Gadsden clinic, she was denied.

“They said they only had three tests, and they had to use them sparingly,” she said. “They said I didn’t have enough symptoms.”

Phacethia Posey and her sister Johnjalene began taking care of family members until Posey became sick. The 51-year-old Gadsden woman had formerly worked in healthcare as a rehab technician until rheumatoid arthritis sidelined her last year. Despite pain, she was still able to take care of her family until she became ill. She was a person, Tyrone said, who “treated everybody kindly.”

And she spent time on the Internet searching out some of the home remedies being popularized on social media. Soon, she and other members of the family were taking hits of Vitamin C, elderberry and zinc, inhaling lemon-scented steam in the kitchen over the stove, trying to get more sleep. Health professionals have said that the most sure way to avoid getting the virus is social distancing and washing hands.

But in spite of those efforts, the virus “took control,” he said.

Tyrone described his own experience, losing his sense of taste and smell, among other symptoms. “I felt like I was being twisted in my stomach,” he said. But his wife’s condition continue to deteriorate.

“She was weak,” Tyrone Posey said. “She didn’t want to eat or drink. It was just draining her. The virus attacked her respiratory system. and it progressed until she was hospitalized." It eventually shut down her oxygen and kidneys.

A year before, Tyrone said, he had been hospitalized, but Phacethia did not leave his side. Yet because of the pandemic protocols at hospitals, he was not able to stay with her. She lingered seven days before dying.

“It was awful,” he said. “She was alone. We had discussed, if we were hospitalized...she told me to never let her spend the night. For her to spend those seven nights alone was miserable. It was miserable for me and I know it was for her.”

Posey and Porter said people need to realize how quickly the coronavirus can strike, and how precious life is. Posey said he doesn’t think younger people grasp the severity of the moment, and efforts to reopen parts of society need to take into account the price that one family has already paid.

Family members who come to visit try to maintain social distancing, he said, but they aren’t wearing masks. Some of them hug others.

“They know it’s happening, but they’re not taking it seriously,” he said. “This is real.”