Raleigh, NC – Jan Liggins monitors the daily coronavirus statistics in North Carolina, and wonder what could have been if the pandemic had not been so severe.
“I always look at the number when it’s on TV, but I like, ‘It should be one less. It should be ten less,'” Liggins said. “This pandemic, it does not have to go that far as people do the right thing and still stay safe. ‘
North Carolina exceeded 10,000 deaths during the pandemic on Tuesday. Liggins’ father, 70-year-old Ricky David Liggins, was one of them.
“I never thought it would happen to us,” Jan Liggins said. “It’s the first thing you think of. You never think it’s going to happen to you or your family. ‘
Ricky Liggins joined the Marine Corps Reserves and became a police officer in Raleigh, where he eventually became an officer and served on the SWAT team.
“He loved working with people, and he thought it would be a great opportunity to help others,” his wife, Deborah Liggins, said of his career in law enforcement. ” He felt it was a calling. He loved it. ‘
The couple met as teenagers on a blind date for a dance at the National Guard Armory in Zebulon and married in August 1969.
“When we were growing up, we did everything together, and it was fun. It was so much fun,” Jan Liggins said of the close-knit family.
Ricky Liggins continued the close family ties with his only granddaughter, Adriana Liggins.
“He was so close to her. He would do her shopping and eating and stuff,” Deborah Liggins said.
“I called him every night before I went to bed,” said Adriana Liggins, now a 21-year-old choreographer at Meredith College.
“He never missed one of my dance recitals, not even at Meredith’s,” she said. ‘After [each], he would be like, ‘Oh, you did so wonderfully.’ “
Ricky Liggins, who retired from Raleigh Police Station in 2000, thought he had the flu last fall, but then started coughing up blood. His wife took him to WakeMed.
“Of course I could not go in, and that was the last time I saw him when he passed by,” she said. “It was a horrible, horrible experience.”
Tests showed he had coronavirus, and his symptoms were so severe that he ended up on a ventilator in the intensive care unit.
“I think it was just such a shock to him because he’s always been so healthy,” said Deborah Liggins. “He told me, ‘I’m not supposed to be here. ‘He took his vitamins, he worked, he exercised regularly, he ate well. ‘
When the family was able to speak to him telephonically, the conversations were short due to his breathing problems, she said.
“I never knew anything about his feelings and what was going on with him,” his wife said. ‘I still had hope [for recovery]. He was the strongest person I have ever known. He was never afraid of anything, and he was like my Superman, my hero. ‘
But then Ricky Liggins got a virus-related stroke, and a neurologist told the family to prepare for the worst.
“He said, ‘If he gets it right – and I really do not think he’s going to get it – he’s never going to know who you are. He’s going to need 24 hours of care,” Deborah Liggins said.
She knew he did not want to be life supportive, and she, her daughter and granddaughter then fit into protective attire to briefly visit him in the ICU and say goodbye.
Ricky Liggins passed away on November 4th.
“He fought. He fought hard,” Deborah Liggins said.
Police officers in Raleigh greeted the coffin draped with flag when he was buried at the Gethsemane Memorial Gardens in Zebulon.
“He was buried with his browse phone,” Adriana Liggins said over the phone he called her all the time. ‘It’s glued with adhesive tape. He loved his phone. ‘