{"id":10582,"date":"2020-04-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=10582"},"modified":"2020-04-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T00:00:00","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=10582","title":{"rendered":"Joan Wittman, grandmother"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Joan Wittman \u2011 a mother, grandmother and a good friend from Minneapolis \u2011 lost her life to COVID-19 on April 26 at 88 years old.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Her sweetness drew even the family dog in from the time Joan Wittman was born in 1931.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

“She grew up here in Minneapolis,” her daughter Joan Berendt said. “She left school at 10th grade she started working to help the family out. But, one of the smartest people I ever knew.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Joan did crossword puzzles in ink and her daughter says her mom’s nose was always buried in a book.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

“I was really, really close to her,” Berendt said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

In fact, her mom lived with Jill Berendt’s family and helped to raise Jill’s kids, until dementia forced them two years ago to move Joan to North Ridge in New Hope. Like all nursing homes, when COVID-19 cases were confirmed in March, the facility kept families away.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

“I was afraid for her. Because I knew that if she got it she probably wouldn’t survive it,” Berendt said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Her family mailed her a cell phone with the hope they’d stay connected.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

“I tried to talk to her on the phone one time but she clearly had no idea what was going on or who I was,” she said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A month later, as COVID-19 cases climbed at North Ridge, Joan tested positive.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

“They started saying she was going downhill fast,” she added.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Joan Wittman died on April 26 at 88 years old, without any final words from the five generations of family she leaves behind.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

CBS Minnesota<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/p>

<\/p>\n \n \n

<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joan Wittman \u2011 a mother, grandmother and a good friend from Minneapolis \u2011 lost her life to COVID-19 on April 26 at 88 years old. Her sweetness drew even the family dog in from the time Joan Wittman was born in 1931. “She grew up here in Minneapolis,” her daughter Joan Berendt said. “She left […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6698,7019,15],"tags":[1051,114,8051,113,792,6710,8303,8301,6709,6224,6434,6435,8302],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/wp-content\/uploads\/imageholder\/uploads\/Joan_Wittman.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1245,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=1245","url_meta":{"origin":10582,"position":0},"title":"Lynsay Coventry","date":"April 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Lynsay Coventry, 54, was the first serving midwife in England to be killed by the virus on April 2. She had worked at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) in Harlow, Essex, for ten years and was described by colleagues as a \u201cproud\u201d midwife who was \u201cvery well respected.\u201d Coventry\u2019s family\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Profiles"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7724,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=7724","url_meta":{"origin":10582,"position":1},"title":"Nahdezhda Divak, Nurse","date":"March 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Nahdezhda Divak \u2013 a Nurse at Regional Clinical Hospital, Kaliningrad, Russia \u2013 passed away after suffering from COVID-19. It was reported on 5 March 2020. Nahdezhda was 65 years old. For more than 20 years, Nadezhda Aleksandrovna worked with the department of pulmonology. Her colleagues and patients loved and respected\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Medics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8887,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=8887","url_meta":{"origin":10582,"position":2},"title":"Lynika Strozier, scientist","date":"June 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Lynika Strozier \u2011 an American scientist whose efforts to overcome a learning disability were described as inspirational \u2013 succumbed to the Covid 19 \u00a0on June 7, 2020 at just 35 years of age. Strozier was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but moved to Chicago, with her mother, when she was a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Noteworthy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11781,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=11781","url_meta":{"origin":10582,"position":3},"title":"Sandra Jacobs, Saleswoman","date":"October 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine brought about the April 21 death of Tatum Strieter-Byron's mother, 60-year-old Sandra Jacobs of Saline, a grandmother, a friend, an employee.","rel":"","context":"In "Sad But True"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Sandra-Jacobs.jpg?fit=1000%2C611&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1231,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=1231","url_meta":{"origin":10582,"position":4},"title":"Liz Glanister","date":"May 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Grandmother Liz Glanister (centre), a nurse at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool, died after testing positive for coronavirus. Dianne Brown, chief nurse at the Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, confirmed her death \u201cwith great sadness.\u201d She added: \u201cAll our thoughts are with Liz\u2019s family at this time and we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Medics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Tim-Brooke-Taylor1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8357,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=8357","url_meta":{"origin":10582,"position":5},"title":"Patricia Frieson, Nurse","date":"March 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Patricia Frieson \u2013 a Nurse (retired) in Chicago, Illinois \u2013 passed away on 16 March, 2020, after suffering from COVID-19. Patricia was 61 years old. Her first nursing job had been at a nursing home, followed by a hospital in West Helena, Ark., then a regional hospital across the river\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Medics"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}