OLATHE, Kan. -- Brenda Swartz was a daughter, mother, wife and friend. She was also healthy with no preexisting conditions. Yet, last week she died of the H1N1 flu virus at Olathe Medical Center.
Just days before she died, Brenda wrote a note from her hospital bed to her husband of 19 years. She was sick and unable to speak.
It said, “Make sure and plant my flowers.” Even approaching death, Brenda cared so much for life.
"It's just like everything in the house I mean everything I look at every time I turn one way or the other it reminds me of her," her husband Dan Swartz explained.
The vibrant 50 year old had three children including a 15-year-old daughter who considered her friend as well as a terrific mom.
"I still come home and open the garage door and see her car there and go oh mom's home! And then I start walking up the steps and go oh yeah she's not," she said.
Brenda was always on the go. She was a project manager at Sprint for 13 years before suffering a layoff in March. She received a Masters in business.
Late last month the CEO of the household got sick. Sniffles and sneezes grew worse each day. Brenda checked into the hospital. But the first test for swine flu was negative. Then her lung collapsed additional tests revealed she in fact had H1N1. In a matter of days this perfectly healthy woman died and with her so did a piece of everyone she touched.
"This stuff completely ripped my wife out of my life, my kids lost their mother, and people that she knew lost a wonderful friend and her parents they lost their child," said Dan.
He urges everyone to take the illness seriously. He has already vaccinated his family from seasonal flu. He hopes to also get the H1N1 vaccine soon.
