‘The Lord answers prayer,’ Charlotte judge says as wife recovers from coronavirus
Now for some good news: Mecklenburg Judge Donnie Hoover’s lifelong sweetheart has come home.
Josephine Hoover, 70, was released from Presbyterian Novant Hospital in Charlotte about midday Monday, a turn of events as abrupt as the COVID-19 symptoms that sent her to the emergency room on March 16.
“It was a wonderful surprise,” said Hoover, a veteran Mecklenburg County judge who was self-quarantining at the couple’s First Ward condo since learning Friday that he also had tested positive for the potentially lethal disease.
“She called me about noon to say they were telling her they were going to release her.
“I don’t think either one of us believed it. I told her, ‘I’m dressed. I’m ready to go. If someone tells you they’re going to send you home, you get out of there in a hurry before they change their minds.’”
So much for Hoover’s quarantine. With the doctors’ go-ahead, he made the 10-minute drive to the uptown hospital wearing a protective mask.
He picked her up at 2. His first words: How much he missed her, he said.
“She looked wonderful, but it was sort of bittersweet,” Hoover continued. “We couldn’t touch. We couldn’t hug.”
Back at the condo, the Hoovers — who met at old York Road High and plan to celebrate their 50th anniversary in August — must spend the next two weeks using separate bedrooms and bathrooms and keeping a safe, 6-foot distance.
That said, they shared a late breakfast — grits, tofu eggs and vegan sausage — before Josephine Hoover climbed into bed to rest.
As of Monday afternoon, and with the worst likely still somewhere in the future, 333 Charlotte-Mecklenburg residents have come down with the new coronavirus. A total of 382 people have taken tests in Mecklenburg and been diagnosed with COVID-19. Tens of thousands have died worldwide as the pandemic speeds on.
The Hoovers’ own trip together through the coronavirus gauntlet may still be unfolding. At 70, both have significant medical histories that could complicate their recoveries.
But at 4 p.m., when Josephine Hoover was resting peacefully in her own bed, her husband of 49 years and seven months picked up his phone and tapped out a message of happiness and thanks.
“Please know that the Lord answers prayer,” he texted. “He just returned my sweetheart to me.”
Hallelujah, said one of the replies.
This story was originally published March 30, 2020 at 6:32 PM.
