Daughter of nursing home resident reacts to death: ‘My dad was somebody’
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Gallatin (WSMV) — The daughter of a Gallatin nursing home resident is speaking up after his death.
Homer Barr lived at the Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation and Healing. Several people tested positive for the coronavirus there.
“My dad was somebody. He wasn’t just somebody over at the nursing home. He was somebody,” Deneen Barr, Barr’s daughter said.
Barr described him as a man true to his word. He served on Gallatin’s fire department for 26 years.
Her dad spent his last moments in the hospital without her.
“What went through my head was he was all by hisself and he probably didn’t even know,” Barr said.
Barr said her dad moved into the center more than a year ago.
Like many others on Friday night, she was waiting to find out if her father was sick. Then the next day, she found out the worst news possible from a doctor.
“He said when my dad came in he was having trouble breathing. I said ‘okay, well how is he doing now?’ He said he passed away,” Barr said.
She’s still waiting to find out if he got COVID-19 and if he did, how he got it.
“Somebody come into that nursing home with that virus and now look at these people,” Barr said.
Her mom died on the same day a year ago. She said everyone needs to take this seriously.
“What is it going to have to happen to one of your family members to know that this is serious?,” Barr said.
For Barr, she’s honoring the man known for his love of riding motorcycles, fishing, and saving people as a firefighter.
“I want my dad to be remembered as the strong man that he was,” Barr said.
The state is looking into the coronavirus outbreak at the nursing home. The Health Department commissioner described it as a “rapidly escalating situation.”
So far, the state hasn’t pinpointed any bad practices at the nursing home.
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