The lost: Capital Region lives ended by COVID-19

558.

That’s the minimum count of how many people, as of this writing, have succumbed to COVID-19 in the greater Capital Region.

In less than 10 months.

That is a wartime number — a casualty list perhaps more in keeping with the recounting of Civil War regimental losses than of anything understood in the modern era.

Scientists who study the way the human brain processes big numbers say we’re not very good at it.  The larger the number, the less we’re likely to feel a strong emotional response to it.

But these numbers are the sum of individual lives: a grandmother who made an amazing sweet potato pie; a woman who nearly died in an explosion at a coal plant in her native Croatia; a newly engaged man who helped people through chemical dependency; an Adirondack 46er who seemed far from being susceptible to the virus’ deadly grasp.

And for each victim, there are dozens, hundreds, in some cases thousands of people connected to that person, like branches stretching out from an oak tree splintered from a storm that has lashed it.

Two new vaccines bring hope that one day there will be an end.

But not yet.

Each day the tally continues to grow.

So to honor the victims of 2020 as a new year begins, here is just a fraction of their stories.

MARIE ANDERS, 89, Dec. 1

The Catskill Mountain restaurateur and native of Croatia was a World War II refugee whose family fled to Austria when she was a child. Her father died at 17, forcing Anders to quit school and help support her family by working in a coal factory. She nearly died when a steam explosion at the plant burned 80 percent of her body. She survived, met and married her husband, and eventually immigrated to the U.S., where they ran a boarding house. There, her son Karl Schwarzenegger said, she offered “her great heart. … She always had an open door, warm bed and a plate of food for anyone coming off the street. … She gave to others before she gave to herself.” Divorced in 1979, Anders opened Marie’s Dream House, a German-American restaurant in Greene County’s West Kill.

After suffering a stroke, she moved in with Schwarzenegger in Cairo. Her son said he brought home the virus, but thinking it was just a cold: “I didn’t realize what it was before it was too late. … I still struggle with that.” Anders developed pneumonia and died about 10 days later at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson.

DENNIS BRADT, 29, May 13

Bradt is the youngest person the Times Union has profiled who died after contracting COVID-19. The Colonie resident was an addiction technician at Conifer Park, a private, inpatient chemical dependency treatment facility in Glenville. Bradt battled the virus for more than a month, and died of a heart attack while on a ventilator. He had proposed to Angela Padula a month before the pandemic hit. The Ohio State and Raiders football fan was making plans to marry on June 18, 2022. “He was just a really good, fun-loving guy,” Padula said.

PATRICIA BROWER, 88, Dec. 11

Brower, who worked as a dental assistant for Dr. Anthony Morra in Latham, was described by her son Jeffrey Brower as “a loving wife and mother” who took pride in her home. “She was a meticulously clean woman who took the social distancing and mask wearing so seriously that I only saw her once in the last year,” he said. “She is the last person in the world who would catch this disease.”

He said his mother had to have surgery that required rehab. She was admitted into a center in Troy, which Brower would not name for fear of legal repercussions. However, he said “there is no question she caught it there.” The Latham resident was brought to St. Peter’s Hospital and died within two weeks. “She was a normal woman living a normal life, and was totally blindsided by this,” her son said.

RONALD CLARK, 70, April 23

Clark was a railroad electrician for 31 years and a leader for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. But what he was most known for in the community was his involvement in local soccer leagues as a referee, and his voracious love of hiking and biking. Clark climbed all 46 of the Adirondack High Peaks and hiked the Appalachian Trail. Clark first thought he had a bad reaction to a shingles vaccine in mid-March. But he slowly got sicker, ultimately being placed on a ventilator before he died April 23 at Saratoga Hospital. “Nobody expected Ron not to come home,” said Janis Clark, his wife.

JOHN CLEMMER, 77, Sept. 10

Clemmer, known as Jay, was the successful owner of Tri-City Towing and Village Mobil for 50 years. But after suffering complications related to shoulder surgery in early July at Albany Medical Center, the Berne resident was sent to Our Lady of Mercy Life Center in Guilderland for rehab. About three weeks later, he was rushed back to Albany Med with a fever and disorientation, and tested positive for COVID-19. “You can’t imagine how shocked I was,” his wife, Linda Clemmer, said. “I only saw him the day before. I thought he was getting better.” She described her husband as “a tough guy, a straitlaced guy, extremely honest and smart about the world. … He tried to do everything right.”

“I can’t tell you how tough it’s been,” she said. “You have to go on … but I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m holding on, still missing him big-time.”

REGINA “GINA” DIX-PARSONS, 75, April 4

Dix-Parsons worked in the infant room of the family day care center affiliated with Refreshing Spring Church of God in Christ, which was started by her parents, the late Rev. Eugene and Georgetta Dix, who were community activists in Schenectady’s Hamilton Hill neighborhood.

Dix-Parsons sang in several choirs and was known as an excellent cook, with people continuously asking for her sweet potato pie recipe. She had three biological daughters, as well as many more foster children she and her husband cared for. She was admitted to Ellis Hospital in March and was eventually placed on a ventilator. Her family said goodbye to her in a FaceTime call due to pandemic visiting restrictions.

RITA C. DROZDZAL, 91, Aug. 8

Drozdzal, a resident of Troy Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, was one of at least eight who died after a COVID-19 outbreak hit the facility. A lifelong Albany resident, Drozdzal worked at the state Department of Health’s Wadsworth Laboratory and retired after 37 years. Her obituary said she died a “senseless death.” In a Times Union story, Drozdzal’s nieces raised concerns about their aunt’s death, including why a Troy Center employee was allowed to also work at Diamond Hill, another Rensselaer County nursing home with a significant COVID-19 outbreak.

“She was elderly and 91, so she wasn’t skipping across campus,” Denise Benoit said of her aunt. “But she was healthy, not on any medications or anything like that. She didn’t deserve to die that way.”

LINDA DUKES, 71, May 3

Dukes, an active member of Bethel Baptist Church in Troy, started a ministry called Freedom Bound Ministries for women transitioning from incarceration, and eventually began preaching at two churches in Albany. She worked as an administrative assistant for State Farm Insurance for 25 years, and more recently had retired from a similar position with the State Education Department.

Leon Dukes, 78, has said he suspected his wife may have contracted the virus while preaching on March 8. The pandemic lockdown would not come until about a week later. Linda Dukes was on a ventilator but seemed to have recovered, and was transferred to Sunnyview Rehabilitation Center in Schenectady.

“All expectations, especially for me, was she was coming home,” her husband said.

DENNIS F. EVANS, 59, April 6

Evans was a real estate broker for Coldwell Banker in Clifton Park. He was healthy but had high blood pressure; it’s believed he might have contracted COVID-19 after one of his clients tested positive. Struggling to breathe, he was taken to Saratoga Hospital on March 27.

The realtor was known for his infectious sense of humor. “He just had this way of making you feel like the most important person in the world,” said one of his co-workers. “I want strangers and friends alike to take COVID seriously,” Erin Evans, one of Dennis’ three daughters, told the Times Union at the time of his death. “Not only did this awful virus rob us of our father, but the comfort of seeing him in the hospital and saying goodbye.”

BILL GLADSTONE, 88, April 30

Gladstone brought affiliated baseball back to the Capital Region community in 2002, when he and his partners relocated the New York-Penn League franchise from Pittsfield, Mass., to brand-new Joseph L. Bruno Stadium — aka The Joe — in Troy.

Gladstone fell in love with baseball growing up in Brooklyn in the 1930s and ’40s. One of his first dates with his future wife, Millie, was at a Dodgers game at Ebbets Field. The Gladstones were at practically every ValleyCats home game for years, sitting behind home plate, until Millie died two years ago at age 85. Bill was seen far less at games last season. He died at Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts after contracting the virus.

“That Section 100 will never be the same,’’ Doug Gladstone said in the wake of his father’s death. “Nor will The Joe or the rest of us, to be honest.”

MATT GRAS, 46, April 15

Gras was a member of the stellar Siena College men’s basketball team of the mid-1990s, including the 1993-94 Siena team that made it to Madison Square Garden for the final four of the National Invitation Tournament.

He was battling cerebellar ataxia — a disorder that impairs the ability to coordinate balance, gait, extremity and eye movements — when he contracted COVID-19. His former coach, Mike Deane, called Gras’ teammates to tell them he had died.

“Matt looked out for me like a big brother,” said former teammate Geoff Walker. “He was just a big teddy bear.”

JEANENNE HOLT, 59, Dec. 18

Holt was the top administrative assistant to Albany County District Attorney David Soares for the past 10 years, and was one of at least five members of Soares’ staff to contract COVID-19. Holt, who had an adult son, daughter and partner of 40 years, had been working from home, Soares’ office said. She loved to travel, cook meals for her extended family, and “being dressed to the nines,” her obituary said.

“Our office is a lot less bright and a lot less warm with the passing of our Jeanenne,” Soares said. “We are simply devastated.”

JAMES E. HUGHSTON, 84, April 14

A retired Johnstown elementary school band teacher, Hughston began playing the piano at 7, studied the bassoon at the Eastman School of Music and played the organ at Amsterdam’s United Methodist Church for 42 years. After the end of his first marriage, Hughston met Jim Vallee in 1994. They were married on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls in 2004, seven years before marriage equality became law in New York. He was a good cook, Vallee said, with a passion for computers.

Hughston had struggled with dementia for about four years before he went to live in Brookdale East Niskayuna in January. In early April, he developed a low fever and digestive problems — symptoms that were not attributed to COVID-19. But he began to lose his mobility, and had to be admitted to Ellis Hospital. A test there was positive for the virus, but he was not a candidate for a ventilator. Hospital staff made him comfortable, and he died a few days later.

“Even though my dad was older and he had conditions, his life was important and it mattered, and it was cut short by this,” Hughston’s daughter, Joyce Hansel, who lives in Connecticut, told the Times Union in April. “He’s not just a statistic.”

FRANCES MEALEY, 86, Nov. 27

Mealey worked for Samaritan Hospital as a maintenance secretary until age 79 — a total of 35 years. The mother of five contracted COVID as a resident of the Eddy Heritage House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; her daughter, Vicki Messick, said her mother got excellent care there. Mealey was admitted to Samaritan on a Monday and died the following Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

“She died alone at the hospital,” Messick said. “It’s horrible.”

Messick said her mother — who loved to get her hair done, a pleasure denied in her final months because of COVID restrictions — was a single mom who worked hard all her life. She was so well-loved by hospital staff, Messick noted, that her mother’s death inspired more than 500 comments on the hospital’s private Facebook page. “She touched a lot of lives at Samaritan Hospital,” Messick said. “She was a pretty amazing woman.”

SPIRO MIKROPOULOS, 74, April 15

Mikropoulos was a well-known restaurateur in Schenectady who previously ran the famed Brandywine Diner and most recently the Bellevue Cafe. He was born in Greece, and immigrated to the U.S. with his family in the early 1960s. Longtime friend John Marcella, who owns Marcella’s Appliance Center, said Mikropoulos called him to make sure Marcella was feeling OK — and then two days later, Mikropoulos entered Ellis Hospital. He died three weeks later.

“He calls me up because he knows I have a breathing problem to ask how I’m doing because he’s concerned, thinking about me and all this, and two days later he goes in the hospital,” Marcella said after his friend’s death. “He was a genuine, beautiful person.”

SHIRLEY REITTINGER, 65, April 9

A former Head Start teacher in Cohoes, Reittinger was known as an outgoing storyteller and devoted grandmother.

The Latham resident was at her winter retirement community in Fort Myers, Fla., when she contracted COVID-19 — likely while working on her community’s casino night in early March, in the first weeks of the pandemic.

Reittinger didn’t get seriously ill until after she boarded a cruise to celebrate the 65th birthday she shared with her twin sister. Her family was able to evacuate her from a hospital in Jamaica on March 13, but the damage to her lungs was too great. She died in a Fort Lauderdale hospital.

“Her passing has changed my entire life,” her daughter Katrina Schadt wrote to the Times Union in April. “I never thought she would pass anytime soon. She was so full of life and energy.”

WALTER L. ROBB, 91, March 23

Robb, an accomplished engineer and former director of General Electric Co.’s research and development center, had a notable second act as the onetime owner of the Albany River Rats hockey team, and a philanthropist who was an integral supporter of Double H Ranch, an Adirondack camp for children with serious medical issues.

“The indelible mark he has left on all of us as a community cannot be overstated,” said Paul Milton, president and CEO of Ellis Medicine.

Robb was attempting to care for his wife, Anne, who appeared to be sick with COVID-19 in the first weeks of the pandemic’s arrival upstate. One of his sons, Richard, said he first noticed his father’s serious cough when Robb called him to arrange care for his wife. His son persuaded Robb to go to Ellis Hospital. He was put on a respirator, and did not recover. Robb’s death was reported as possibly the first in the region from COVID-19.

BRUCE SOWALSKI, 68, April 2

The Albany native had a lung condition, but it never stopped him from traveling the world, hiring guides to teach him about the native birds of whatever country he was visiting. He was a dedicated volunteer at St. Vincent de Paul food pantry in Albany, a board member for The Food Pantries for the Capital District, and worked in marketing and communications for WXXA, Sprint and Independent Wireless.

His obituary noted that he functioned as the unofficial “social director” among the Big Bowman Pond community, organizing “talent shows, Friday night cocktails via pedal boat, dinners, and gatherings at the house, and long walks along the lake chatting with neighbors.”

Sowalski’s illness looked like a regular cold at first, but he eventually struggled to breathe. Two weeks after his initial symptoms, Sowalski died at Albany Medical Center Hospital. He was the first Rensselaer County resident known to die from COVID-19.

“Think twice about everything that you do,” said his wife, Lorraine, in April. “If you don’t have to go out, then just don’t.”

THOMAS STEPHANY, 63, Dec. 1

Stephany, a retiree of Bethlehem School District who loved boxing and piloting planes, was known as “one of the kindest people you ever want to meet,” his sister Marie Luthringer said. “He was a friend to animals and marginalized people” and “conscientious about the environment.”

Luthringer said her brother, who didn’t go out a lot, contracted COVID at a local restaurant where workers tested positive. The diagnosis was complicated by the Delmar resident’s other issue, Parkinson’s disease, which he struggled with for more than 10 years. “It’s just not a good combination when you have a pre-existing condition — difficult to overcome. But we thought he had a good chance,” she said.

She was with him in his last hours, “telling him how much he was loved by so many people. … He was very, very special.”

BARBARA LOUISE SULLIVAN, 96, Nov. 30

Sullivan’s daughter Janet Cordes said her mother was “a tough cookie” who taught her five children to love all animals, especially strays. The retired nurse, who had worked at Albany Medical Center Hospital and Fort Hudson Nursing Center in Fort Edward, had undergone hip surgery just two years before and pulled through without a complaint.

“The best word to describe her was ‘resilient,’ ” Cordes said. “She really had no dementia. She loved books and read the (newspaper) every day. She was on her game up until the very end.”

She was one of several residents of the Eddy Village Green at Cohoes who tested positive for COVID-19. She died at the nursing home a week after showing symptoms.

Cordes noted that Sullivan wanted to donate her body to Albany Medical Center College for scientific research (“She was a nurse until the end”), but “COVID has shut that down.”

KYRA M. SWARTZ, 33, April 4

The 2005 graduate of Bethlehem High School had been battling COVID-19 for 10 days inside her Manhattan apartment before she was found dead there on April 4 — one of the small percentage of people younger than 40 who have died of the disease. A digital and marketing analyst, Swartz was also known for her volunteer work with animals. “For so many in our community, it’s all of a sudden hit home — because this is not just a statistic,” said Rabbi Scott Shpeen of Congregation Beth Emeth, where Swartz’s family have been members for generations.

After Swartz’s death, Shpeen talked about how the devastation after a coronavirus death was aggravated by the need to protect survivors: The service was only made up of her parents, brother and sister-in-law; they couldn’t hug each other afterward.

“Here is a time of tremendous grief, and the family can’t even draw comfort from the support of the community,” the rabbi said.

PAUL WEAFER, 74, April 3

Weafer worked for three decades as an attorney in the state Legislative Bill Drafting Commission, where he “was often referred to as ‘best bill drafter in Albany’ since Robert Moses,” his obituary noted. He also served on numerous municipal boards in Albany County, tackling everything from economic development to police misconduct.

Doctors thought Weafer had pneumonia when he was hospitalized March 8. It wasn’t until he was in the ICU that a positive test confirmed he was one of the first regional victims of the pandemic. Weafer’s wife, a retired nurse, asked to be at his side before he died, and made the case that she knew how to wear PPE properly.

“I begged to go back, but they wouldn’t let me,” Pat Weafer said.

Her husband was taken off the ventilator in the week before he died, so the couple got to exchange a few words over the phone. Pat said her husband had been dealing with a chronic health issue since January, but “people should know … he didn’t die of anything else but COVID.”

RUDY WILSON, 57, April 9

He was known as a person who did everything he could for others in need, and was a loyal employee at Popeyes on Albany’s Central Avenue for more than a decade.

The 57-year-old Guyanese native, who managed the fast-food restaurant, fell ill with COVID-19 not long after a co-worker was found to have coronavirus.

“I was married to an angel,” said Wilson’s wife, Corietta. “God sent him, and then when he fulfilled his work on the face of this Earth, he took him back.”

BENNY ZLOTNICK, Sr., 86, Dec. 24

Zlotnick Sr. was born on April Fool’s Day and was known for his “infectious laugh” and “contagious sense of humor.”

The retired salesman from Ballston Spa successfully peddled everything from candy, to life insurance, to eventually flooring. But when he suffered a stroke and needed short-term rehab, he was sent to Wesley Health Care Center in Saratoga Springs. A week later, Wesley called the family to say Zlotnick Sr. tested positive for COVID-19. That was a Tuesday and he died the following Thursday, Christmas Eve.

“We really had no idea he was that sick,” said his son, Milton Supervisor Benny Zlotnick, Jr., who was not allowed to visit his father due to virus restrictions.  “He wasn’t Charles Atlas. He wasn’t as strong as he could have been. But he wasn’t failing.”

“It was a rough start to Christmas Eve,” his son said.