As 18-year-old Miles and 15-year old Marina Daniel head back to school this month, they won’t be able to get support from their parents, who died within hours of each other this summer from COVID-19.
Miles and Marina’s parents – Martin, age 53 and Trina, age 49 – met at Savannah State University in the 1990s before Martin attended graduate school at Tuskegee University in Alabama for graduate school, their nephew, Cornelius Daniel, told ABC News.
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They settled in Savannah, Ga. Martin worked as a chemist and Trina was a stay-at-home mom.
Cornelius said his aunt and uncle were hesitant to get vaccinated in part due to the legacy of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Unknowing Black men from the 1930s to the 1970s were used as test subjects to study the progression of the disease in the study.
His uncle had “a stubborn attitude toward vaccines in general,” Cornelius said. “He trusted the vaccines that had been around for a while.”
However, Martin thought the COVID-19 vaccines had been developed too quickly to be safe. By the time he eventually made an appointment to get one, the chemist started experiencing symptoms, which spiraled out of control around July 4, before he could get the vaccine.
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He died at home only July 6. Trina was then admitted to the hospital and died the same night.
“We were already taken aback by his passing, but to have to endure the passing of her ... was traumatizing,” Cornelius said.
Their children were also diagnosed with COVID-19 and were hospitalized July 7. They continued to battle the illness in quarantine for two weeks after losing both of their parents.
Cornelius said he decided to attend Tuskegee because his uncle went there and the Daniels' niece, Quintella Daniel, added that she went to Savannah State because of her uncle.
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“He was just a very motivational person,” she said.
When the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, Quintella, a nurse, headed to New York City, the first U.S. epicenter, calling it “a life-changing experience.”
After a painful month, both the Daniels’ children are “doing well” and “adjusting to the new normal,” Cornelius said.
Miles’ family dropped him off at college this weekend. Marina is beginning her sophomore year of high school. They both plan to get vaccinated, said their uncle. He hopes others will follow their lead.