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A Mississippi barber passed away from COVID-19 after he continued to accept clients while the epidemic spreads. Eugene Thompson, 46, of Brookhaven, Mississippi passed away April 4 after testing positive for the virus.

On March 17th Thompson the owner of Taper Nation and Taper Nation 2 barbershops, made a Facebook saying he had gotten sick. Then he closed his shops for the remainder of the week.

“Quarantine yourself stay away from people…places.. or things…I felt a little [achy]… fever was a little high so I came to get checked,” Thompson wrote at the time. “Tapernation will be closed for the rest of the week…well deserved rest and relaxation..”

Before that post, he gave the following warning to clients seeking a haircut.

“🚨PSA: Due to the coronavirus TaperNation will only be accepting clients that are ONLY receiving a service until further notice… SO if [you’re] not receiving a service … don’t come !!”

After days of fighting for his life, he died less than a week after his 46th birthday according to EURweb.

“He couldn’t get up and walk to the car, not walk around the house cause he couldn’t do that anyway,” Thompson’s sister Dedra Edwards said. “At 12:22 p.m. the nurse practitioner in the ICU at St. Dominic called me and said his heart stopped and we couldn’t revive him.”

“Our last memory of him is getting on the ambulance,” she added. “We weren’t able to say goodbye, he was alone my brother was all by himself.”

Thompson was also a role model to kids in his community. “There’s a lot of people, kids and adults that he cut for free that didn’t have the money and I was one of them,” longtime client Shanta Harris told WLBT News.

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