RIVERDALE, the Bronx — Carmen Mendez moved to the South Bronx from San Juan, Puerto Rico when she was 11 years old.

Her life ended during the COVID-19 pandemic on the fifth floor of Schervier Nursing Home in Riverdale, while her husband of 61 years, Benito, stood in his third-floor room in the same facility. Carmen had symptoms of COVID-19 but her family does not believe she was tested for the virus before she died.

“He was standing at the door of his room,” Benito’s sister, Grace Mendez, told PIX11 News.

That’s because nursing home employees have been delivering meals to his door during the coronavirus outbreak.

“The nurse said, ‘Your wife is very sick. Your wife is dying,’” Grace Mendez said.

Benito and Carmen Mendez had been living at the nursing home since last summer, after Benito, 85, fell at home and Carmen, 83, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Carmen was known as Maty.

The couple have a son, Vinny, and Carmen Mendez worked for many years as a cook, first in a day care center and later at a shelter for persons struggling with addiction.

Carmen’s sister-in-law called her “a great woman that worked hard for every bit she had.”

“They were a funny couple. She used to argue and he made jokes. I guess that was the secret for such a long marriage,” Grace Mendez said.

Unfortunately, after the couple went to the nursing home, Carmen’s Alzheimer’s progressed, so the facility needed to separate the couple and put Carmen on a higher floor.

“He used to say, ‘If she dies, they’re going to let me see her, right?’” Grace Mendez recalled.

But it was not to be.

Carmen Mendez died without her husband by her side on the fifth floor of the nursing home last Saturday, April 4.

Benito was bewildered, at first, when he heard the news because nurses used his wife’s given name instead of her nickname, Maty.

“When it really sunk in, he said, ‘I have to see her,’” Grace Mendez recalled.

“When are we going to have the funeral?” she said he asked. “They’re going to give me a pass.”

“When I told him he couldn’t, that’s when he broke down,” Grace Mendez said.

Grace Mendez posted about Carmen’s death on the Mary Murphy Mystery Facebook page and we contacted her. She didn’t want Carmen to die without recognition for a life well lived.

“This will help us cope with the loss,” Grace Mendez said. “Thank you and God Bless.”

