Holding hands from their intensive care beds as they struggle for breath while fighting Covid-19, this is Anabel Sharma’s harrowing final picture with mum Maria Rico.
Just 24 hours later, the 76-year-old was dead.
And Anabel now warns: “Don’t let this be you.”
The 49-year-old said: “The speed Covid ravaged through our family was frightening. Anyone can get it and it’s roulette whether you will survive.
“If anyone is thinking about breaking the rules, I’d urge them to put themselves in my shoes and think about what it might be like to watch your mum die, or be told that you might not live.
“We were so careful as Mum lived with us. We had food delivered and I only ever did the school run. I never thought Covid would hit us – but it did. ”
In her final moments, Maria took her oxygen mask off to say goodbye to Anabel and her sister Susana, who was allowed on the ward in PPE.
Maria, of Whitwick, Leics, was the last of her family to fall ill after Anabel’s 12-year-old son Isaac contracted Covid following the return to school in September.
Maria, Anabel, her husband Bharat, 47, and her other sons Jacob, 22, and Noah, 10, all fell ill within days.
Anabel and Maria were taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary in mid-October and placed on oxygen a few beds away from each other.
Two weeks later, doctors wheeled Maria’s bed next to Anabel’s, where the gran explained she had signed a Do Not Resuscitate order.
Anabel, who also tells her story on the Humans of Covid-19 Facebook page, said: “Mum was trying to talk. All I heard [was] ‘cremation’ and ‘ready to die’. I was crying but Mum was so brave.
“I asked doctors to take this picture. Then they took Mum back.”
The next day, doctors wheeled Anabel to her mum’s bedside and Maria died on November 1.
Anabel left hospital a month later but has badly damaged lungs and needs oxygen to get around.
