Husband fulfills wife’s mission after she loses battle with COVID-19

TUPELO, Miss. (PRESS RELEASE)- Ann Adams of Amory loved her community and wanted to protect everyone from COVID-19. Now her husband, Mike, is carrying out her mission in her memory.

Mike works in the Bio-Med Department at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, having transferred in 2019 from NMMC Gilmore-Amory, where he had worked since 1991.

Ann, who worked as a medical transcriptionist before becoming disabled, began making masks when the pandemic broke out.

“She always loved to sew and quilt,” Mike says. “Around April, she got out her sewing machine and just started making masks.”

It didn’t take long for word to spread and demand to grow.

“She had a lot of detail in her masks,” Mike says. “A lot of people wanted one. A local store had asked her to make masks for them to sell, too.”

Ann always included an encouraging note in the bag with each mask: “Helping protect our community one mask at a time.”

Around June 11, both Mike and Ann started feeling ill. They went to Amory Medical Clinic for treatment and both tested positive for COVID-19.

Several days later Ann’s condition worsened.  Mike took her to the Emergency Department at NMMC Gilmore-Amory and she was admitted to the hospital.

On June 19, she was transferred to a Jackson hospital and placed on a ventilator.

“I recovered,” Mike says, “but she did not.” Ann passed away on July 5th at age 62.

In memory of his wife of almost 41 years, Mike is giving masks Ann made to others with the hope of preventing anyone else from losing a loved one.