‘Get the Shot. It May Save Your Life’

Dale and Secelia McNair continue to grapple with COVID-19 after he
spent 72 days in the ICU at St. Frances Hospital. (Photo by Wiley Henry)

MEMPHIS, TN – Dale McNair is struggling to keep his blood oxygen level from cascading down into the danger zone. To help him breathe, he ambles along each day with two oxygen tanks in tow.

Reginald Johnson struggles too, but in a different way. His wife Shirley was deprived of oxygen and struggled mightily to breathe in the ICU at Methodist North Hospital. She didn’t make it.

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on both families. Dale McNair, however, is fortunate to be alive. His wife Secelia prayed that God would restore his health. He still struggles, though.

The McNairs were married only 18 months when COVID-19 upended their lives. Secelia had gotten vaccinated; Dale had reservations. “I wanted to see how it would do her,” he said.

On April 27, he was admitted to St. Francis Hospital with pneumonia; and then, too, a second COVID-19 test had come back positive. Within a few days, his health had declined significantly.

Due to the scarcity of beds at the hospital, Dale McNair said he was placed in a makeshift room. “I started going down fast,” he said. “All I could think of was I just wished I could breathe again.”

He spent 72 days in the hospital, four weeks of that time on the cusp of death in the ICU. Plus, the ravaging virus had severely weakened his body, left him frail and a wisp of a man, and robbed him of 50 lbs. 

“I called at least twice a day,” said Secelia McNair, standing by her man, even when she couldn’t visit him. “I talked to the day nurses, night nurses, to see how he was doing, what his oxygen levels were.”

She prayed incessantly too and grappled with mental and emotional distress. “I actually started back seeing a counselor during that time,” she said. “Night times were the hardest, because I’m used to him being there.”

Prayer warriors near and far prayed for Dale McNair too. “I had friends that would text me and say they’re praying for me,” he said. “I had friends in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, California…even in other countries.”

The Johnsons were together 45 years, 35 of them in marriage. In March, they celebrated their wedding anniversary, renewed their vows, took off to Las Vegas, and fêted Shirley’s birthday.

The next month, on April 6, Reginald Johnson got himself vaccinated. He took his second shot the morning of April 30, the day the coronavirus took Shirley’s life. Now he’s alone without his better half.  

He said losing Shirley, the mother of their five children, has been painful and worse at night. “I’m hurting now,” he said, his voice unsteady. “I mean it’s just hard. My life…it’s just been torn upside down.” 

He remembers the onset of his wife’s illness. It was April 22, he recalls, when she started coughing. She blamed it on taking a shower, he said, and venturing too quickly into the outdoors.

“My son and I convinced her that she needed to go get tested,” he said. “So she got tested that Thursday. That Friday morning (April 23), they called and told us that she was positive with COVID-19.”

On Sunday morning, April 25, Reginald Johnson said Shirley woke up, sat on the side of the bed, and was gasping for air. “I told her, ‘Baby, you never want to go to the hospital, but you’re gonna go to the hospital by ambulance or you’re gonna go with me.”

He drove her to Methodist North Hospital. The grim news he received afterward wasn’t reassuring. “They said she was breathing 35 times a minute,” he said. “That was the last time I saw my wife alive until they called me on April 30.”

The McNairs and Reginald Johnson shared their stories on WAVN The Trend 104 FM/1240 AM radio station with host and owner Telisa Franklin and the Rev. Ricky Floyd, a community activist and senior pastor of the Pursuit of God Transformation Center in the Frayser community.

Frayser is located in the 38127 zip code area and has the highest COVID-19 cases in Shelby County, according to the Shelby County Health Department. Black and brown residents comprise the majority. It is one of the least vaccinated communities in the county.

Pastor Floyd has a lot to say about this. He believes the right information is not being disseminated. He said, “I feel there’s not been enough communication through the people who are aware, intelligent, and knowledgeable about the virus.”

Meanwhile, the coronavirus has mutated into the highly transmissible Delta variant. Its viral load is 1,000 times infectious and deadlier, the experts said. And it’s spreading like wildfire across the U.S. and abroad.

When it comes down to Black and brown people, Pastor Floyd said it’s a matter of “race, politics and economics.” He added: “It’s a dangerous combination for underprivileged people who don’t have access to healthcare.”

He is encouraging the underprivileged – or anybody, for that matter – to get vaccinated. “I’ve led by example,” he said. “I almost felt like God was having me to be an example that gives the rest of them confidence to take it.”

Dale McNair needed that confidence. But COVID-19 had overwhelmed him before he was ready to commit to the shot. “It not only can save your life,” he said, “but it can save the life of your spouse, your children…”

Reginald Johnson concurs. “Get the shot. It may save your life,” he added.