‘It changed our life completely’: Pandemic has devastating impact on El Paso family

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA-TV) -- Nearly six months after losing a husband and a father, the Gonzalez family is still trying to navigate their new reality.

Every member of the family of four contracted the coronavirus in May, but Eddie Gonzalez didn't make it.

"It changed our life completely," Ana Gonzalez, Eddie's widow, said. "I'm a single parent now."

Ana suffered serious symptoms but was able to make a recovery. Despite being considered recovered, she says she still suffers from fatigue, body aches and memory loss.

"I don't always feel well because something has happened to my body because of this virus. I don't understand it."

In addition to Ana, her son and daughter also contracted the virus.

Now 13 years old and in eighth grade, Angel is struggling without his dad.

"It's been a lot harder for me to go outside and play basketball," Angel said. "It just hurts because all I can think about is how me and my dad used to play all the time."

"It's heartbreaking for me because he misses his dad," Ana said. "He cries out to God asking, 'Why did you have to take him? Bring him back.' And that tears me apart because he's not here."

Ana says Angel has done remarkably well coping with the loss of his father, but there are moments like that when the emotions boil over. An instance of that happened the day ABC-7 reached out to Ana. She says that's when Angel decided he wanted to speak directly to his community.

"We are all in this together," Angel said. "We can still go out with friends, we can still do that, but the time and the place where we can do that is not now."

Angel is pleading to his community to just be patient right now to hopefully slow the rapid spread of the virus in El Paso.

At just 13 years old with his whole life ahead of him Angel now lives with a new purpose.

"Everything that I do -- I'm going to do it for him [my dad]."