A woman has shared her heartbreaking final moments with her dad after coronavirus killed one in three residents at the veterans' home where he lived.
Susan Kenney held her dad Charles Lowell's hand as he said his final farewells at Holyoke Medical Center, in Massachusetts, US.
The 78-year-old had been moved to the facility after falling ill with Covid-19 at the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, which has been decimated by the disease.
Holding back the tears, Susan told the Today programme: "I had been asking the soldiers' home if God forbid things were coming to an end would we be able to see him.
"The Holyoke Medical Center did call myself and my mother and say we think you should come down. We got to see him for half an hour and he held her (Susan mum's) hand tight the whole time.
"I know he took every bit of strength he had to tell me he loves us all.
"I said we all love you and he made sure I heard him loudly. It was the loudest I had heard him speak in quite a while. I just have to try and find some comfort and hope he was at peace."
Shockingly, Susan said she overheard one of the staff members at the soldiers' home joking about the virus in the midst of the pandemic.
After she heard that residents at the facility were dying from the virus, she rang to get an update on her father but was unable to reach anyone.
Frustrated by the lack of communication, she wrote 'is my dad alive' on her car windows and parked the vehicle outside the home.
An employee apologised to her and she was subsequently kept informed of his condition, before he was transferred to Holyoke Medical Center.
Some 70 of the 226 residents at the veterans' home have died with coronavirus, according to the Today programme.
The head of the facility has been placed on leave, with an investigation underway.
