GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) -- A local pastor's wife says her husband's choice not to get the COVID-19 vaccine weighs on her months after the virus killed him.
Now, she wants to do what she can so that no other family must go through the hurt brought on by this virus.
She’s teamed up with the Guilford County Health Department to administer vaccines at their Greensboro church this week.
Miracle Wilson, Kermit Wilson’s wife, calls the choice to get the shot “life or death.”
She said regardless of her and her husband’s reasons for not getting vaccinated, it holds no weight to the loss of her husband’s life.
Come Friday, she hopes people will file into New Life Ministries Church to roll up their sleeves and get the vaccine.
“Kind-hearted, gentle, hilarious, giving.”
That’s how Wilson remembers her husband.
“He knew that God had a mantle for him to carry from a young age,” she said.
Kermit Wilson, 43, had been a pastor at New Life Ministries in Greensboro for the past five years. His dedication to service was passed along to him by his mother, who is also a minister.
“He was just a great example of how any Christian should walk,” Wilson said.
But his walk here on earth was cut short when he died in September from COVID-19.
“COVID hit the entire house, but our experience was not what his was,” Wilson said. “He was diagnosed the first week in August. We went to an urgent care on Friday afternoon and by Sunday morning, he could not breathe.”
With no underlying health issues, he battled the virus for more than 40 days in the ICU before he died.
Wilson admits the choice she and her husband made to wait to get vaccinated proved to be the wrong one. That’s why she’s urging others to do so before it’s too late.
“If you are walking that line, I’m here to share that there won’t be a line to walk if you get it and die. We don’t have Kermit anymore so there’s no more discussion,” she said.
She said she never wants anyone to feel the pain she and their children, ages 10, 6 and 2 years old, now feel.
That’s why shortly after her husband passed away, she reached out to the Guilford County Health Department so they could host a vaccine clinic at their church this Friday.
“Just come and make a choice to live,” Wilson said.
She wants Kermit’s story to serve as a cautionary tale.
“The reality is we have something. We have one thing that we know for sure that can help. This is that thing,” Wilson said. “If you don’t choose that option, you really don’t know until you’re on that death bed whether or not you absolutely needed that shot. But my husband, he absolutely needed the shot. We needed him to have that shot.”
The vaccination event is Friday from 5-8 p.m. New Life Ministries Church is located at 1902 W. Vandalia Road.
Booster shots will be available, but kid doses aren’t scheduled to be because of how new this week’s recommendations by the CDC are.
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