They watched him die of COVID. Now an SC mom and her children are urging vaccinations
When 12-year-old Gabriella Rubano got the COVID-19 vaccine, she did it with meaning.
Rubano’s stepfather, Brian Weaver, died of COVID-19 complications on August 9. He was 51 years old.
While he was in the hospital, unable to talk, he wrote a note to his wife and Rubano’s mother, Alison Gurreri-Weaver, asking her to get the kids vaccinated.
“He was very worried about us getting vaccinated,” Gurreri-Weaver said. “He was tired, he was struggling.”
‘My husband was dying in a hospital bed’
Weaver, who lived in Little River and owned part of two medical sales companies, caught COVID-19 in August. He was hospitalized, and after a few days his nurses thought he was making a turn for the better, Gurreri-Weaver told The Sun News. Four hours later, she got the call he needed to be put on a ventilator. He didn’t recover.
“One minute we were happy and going on a vacation to Vegas, the next minute my husband was dying in a hospital bed,” Gurreri-Weaver said.
The family hadn’t known anyone personally who had gotten the virus, and they were nervous about the vaccine. They thought they didn’t need it, Gurreri-Weaver said. But as Weaver laid in a hospital bed passing notes to his wife, the decision was made. He wanted his kids and others to get the shot.
Weaver was one of almost 700 Horry County residents and more than 10,000 South Carolinians who have died of COVID-19 since last March, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. As the virus surges once again in Horry County and across the state, most deaths are made up of people who haven’t been vaccinated.
‘He just loved them unconditionally’
Weaver was a natural coach and mentor, sitting in the driveway and helping his his stepson, 10-year-old Alex Rubano, with his basketball technique. But it didn’t stop there. He played sports with the neighbor kids and coached different sports in the North Myrtle Beach and Little River areas.
He invested in his community through sports, his wife said, getting involved in charity golf tournaments that benefited the Family Justice Center, which helps domestic violence victims in Georgetown and Horry counties. Weaver filled the role of a father for Gabriella and Alex, but also for the kids he coached. He had a passion for helping kids who didn’t have a father in their lives, his wife said.
At Gabriella’s gymnastics meets, he made all the gym moms laugh with his trademark loud cheers for his daughter, Gurreri-Weaver said.
“Nobody wants to get in the way when he was videoing Gabby,” Gurreri-Weaver said. “He just loved them unconditionally.”
That love for his family and community was the reason Gurreri-Weaver took her daughter to get vaccinated last week. She said Weaver would have wanted to keep his community safe. After seeing what the virus had done to her husband, that outweighed the nerves and fear of getting the shot, Gurreri-Weaver said.
“COVID is real, it’s not fake,” Gurreri-Weaver said. “It can happen when you least expect it, and it can tear a family apart ... I know that he would not want anyone else to go through what we’re going through.”
But she understood the hesitation, and when she and her daughter were at the pharmacy, they came across another man who was nervous. The pharmacist recognized him, Gurreri-Weaver said, because he had come for the vaccine previously but left before getting a shot.
Sitting in the pharmacy after getting the shot, Gurreri-Weaver and Rubano told the man about their husband and dad. They stayed with him while he got the shot.
That follows a bit of a trend the family has seen in the month since Weaver’s death. Gurreri-Weaver mentioned several friends and family members who decided to get vaccinated after seeing the effects of the virus on someone they knew well.
“I had said I was going to tell our story as much as I could tell our story so we could help other people,” Gurreri-Weaver said.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help Weaver’s family pay medical expenses.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 9:30 AM.
