HOUSTON — Brigid Roberson is one of the 15,000 healthcare workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine at Memorial Hermann Hospital.
She got the shot to honor her grandfather, who died from COVID-19 earlier this month.
Roberson describes her grandpa, James Avery, as 92 years young. He was living in a nursing home, so she hadn’t touched him or held his hand since January due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“Sometimes he went from depression to being mad. He would call and say, 'You don’t love me.' He felt we put him there and left him there. Our hands were tied, because we couldn’t get into the nursing home to see him,” said Roberson, the regional director of security for Memorial Hermann Hospital.
She hoped the COVID-19 vaccine would change that. But earlier this month, her beloved grandfather got the virus. He died the same morning the first shipment of vaccines arrived at Memorial Hermann Hospital. She was in the room watching when the first frontline healthcare worker in Houston received the vaccine.
“When he sat there and got his shot, it was so emotional for me. I literally was sitting there with these big tears on my face, because I thought if they had just had the vaccine a little earlier…it could have helped (my grandfather) to maybe live,” Roberson said.
Nursing home residents in Houston are getting their shots now. Just this week, Texas moved on to phase 1B of vaccine distribution, so people 65 years old and older and people with underlying conditions can get vaccinated, too.
Roberson proudly got her vaccine wearing a T-shirt honoring her grandfather.
“He couldn’t get it, so I thought let me get it for him, in honor of him,” Roberson said.
She hopes everyone eligible to get the vaccine right away, because every shot that’s administered gives everyone else hope for the future.