London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 23, 2025

She's A Widow At Just 31. She Has A Message For You About The Coronavirus

"Why is it that other people just find their person and be happy, but mine is taken from me so soon?"

It was a blustery January day in 2018 when Lew Berry got down on one knee in the parking lot of the bowling alley in Fishers, Indiana, where he and Brianna Berry had gone on their first date a year and a half earlier.

Brianna didn’t believe it was really happening at first. Since they’d moved in together a few months prior, Lew had had some fun building up to the big moment, getting down on one knee a few times just as a prank. What Brianna didn’t know was he’d already bought a ring and was just waiting for the perfect moment. And there, outside the bowling alley where they’d begun their love story, that moment finally came.

“He said ... that first handshake changed his life, and he never knew he could be this happy,” Brianna, 31, told BuzzFeed News. “And he asked me to marry him.”

Brianna and Lew met for the first time in August 2016 at that very same bowling alley. They’d first connected on the dating site Plenty of Fish, months before Brianna was planning to relocate south from northern Indiana, and went on their first date after she’d moved there.

“We went bowling because he didn’t want to go to a movie, because he wanted to talk to me, and dinner was too formal,” she said. “It was just instant chemistry, instant connection. He was very easy to talk to and so funny - he could just make anyone laugh.”

She added, “At the end of that date, he asked if he could kiss me. He was just a gentleman in every way. We both described it later as the best kiss we’ve ever had.”

Their relationship sped forward after that. They cooked for each other and went on a date to the zoo and started spending more time together than they did apart. Eventually, they got a French bulldog named Rocco and bought a house together. And in November 2018, they married.

“That still is the best day of my life, and it was his too,” she said. “You just look at our wedding pictures and you can just tell how much we love each other.”

But Brianna can’t bear to look at the pictures now. Not since April 6, when Lew died of the coronavirus at age 37.

Brianna has been left struggling to come to terms with the death of the man she was married to for less than two years, and she’s at a loss to understand how a virus that leaves many unscathed could kill the love of her life.

“It’s still hard to believe sometimes - because it’s not like he was an old man,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense why some people die and some don’t.”

“Why am I still here and he’s dead?” she asked. “Why am I a 31-year-old widow?”

When the pandemic hit, Brianna said she and Lew took every precaution not to get sick, particularly since they both had asthma. They socially distanced. They washed their hands. They wiped down all the surfaces in their home.

But still, over the last weekend of March, Lew developed a cough, shortness of breath, and a fever. The following Tuesday, March 31, his symptoms had become so severe the pair went to a hospital, where he tested positive for COVID-19.

“[The doctors] told me he was going to be on a vent, so we FaceTimed,” she said. “He told me everything was going to be okay, he was going to fight, and that I was the best thing to ever happen to him, and the years with me were the happiest of his life.

“He told me to be strong, and I told him I loved him and I can’t lose him. And we stayed on FaceTime together until they were going to put the vent in.”

Even while her husband was being intubated, Brianna still didn’t imagine that would be the last time they spoke.

“Never in a million years did I think he wasn’t going to make it,” she said.

Then came the waiting. Brianna waited as the doctors treated Lew, which she described as an emotional roller coaster — hope, then despair. One day, his fever went down, and she thought he was out of the woods. But then it climbed back up again.

On April 5, the doctors told Brianna her husband was going to die. Due to the hospital’s regulations meant to prevent the spread of the virus, she wasn’t allowed to come in and be with him.

“Every night in the hospital, I would have them put me on speakerphone, and I’d sing to him and talk to him and tell him how much I loved him,” she said.

Around 1:30 a.m. on April 6 came the call she’d been dreading.

“I was alone because I was under quarantine,” she said of the moment. “I just remember falling on the floor and screaming.”

Lew was a project manager for a family-owned construction company, which he started working for when he was just 15. The company’s owner, Todd Lewis, 55, told BuzzFeed News he had been in need of some strong workers, and when he ran into the young Lew and some friends on the street, he offered them jobs. Lew started working for the company and never stopped.

Lew turned out to be a skilled worker and grew close to Lewis and his family over the years. In recent years, the two men coached a youth football team together.

“We treated him as one our own, and he became one of our own,” Lewis said.

Months into Lew and Brianna’s relationship, he invited her to Lewis’s Thanksgiving dinner. Lewis laughed, remembering that Lew had been so excited to finally introduce his girlfriend to him that he'd showed up an hour early.

“Something was missing for Lew, and he found Bri, and that filled that hole for him,” Lewis said. “He became a lot happier. She made him very, very happy.”

Despite being the one to deliver Lew’s eulogy at a funeral attended by just six people, Lewis is still in shock. He hasn’t yet been able to grieve the death of his longtime friend.

“Lew had been such a big mountain of a guy that I just never thought anything like that would take him down,” Lewis said.

As part of the eulogy, Lewis read out a list of memories that Brianna had written about her relationship with Lew.

“I had been journaling my memories because I’m afraid I’ll forget them,” Brianna said, “because I feel like we didn’t get enough of them, so I don’t want to forget the ones that we did get.”

Because of social distancing guidelines and fears that she may be carrying the virus, Brianna has been mostly alone as she processes her grief. Her mother is staying with her, and she has videochatted with people, but Brianna said she feels so alone and does not know what her life will look like from here.

“I feel like I’ve been robbed of my life with him,” she said. “It’s like, why is it that other people just find their person and be happy, but mine is taken from me so soon? We never even really got to decide if we were going to have children or not.”

Coupled with her grief, Brianna said she’s overcome with anger and frustration for those she sees as not taking the virus seriously enough, like people not properly social distancing and officials rushing to reopen businesses.

“Don’t think that just because you’re young and healthy that you’re not going to get it,” she said. “It’s not just the elderly, and people need to take this seriously — it's not a joke.

“It is so much worse than I think we were led to believe. Experiencing it firsthand, it is an awful way to die.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
‘Frightening’ First Night in Prison for Sarkozy: Inmates Riot and Shout ‘Little Nicolas’
White House Announces No Imminent Summit Between Trump and Putin
US and Qatar Warn EU of Trade and Energy Risks from Tough Climate Regulation
Apple Challenges EU Digital Markets Act Crackdown in Landmark Court Battle
Nicolas Sarkozy begins five-year prison term at La Santé in Paris
Japan stocks surge to record as Sanae Takaichi becomes Prime Minister
This Is How the 'Heist of the Century' Was Carried Out at the Louvre in Seven Minutes: France Humiliated as Crown with 2,000 Diamonds Vanishes
China Warns UK of ‘Consequences’ After Delay to London Embassy Approval
France’s Wealthy Shift Billions to Luxembourg and Switzerland Amid Tax and Political Turmoil
"Sniper Position": Observation Post Targeting 'Air Force One' Found Before Trump’s Arrival in Florida
Shouting Match at the White House: 'Trump Cursed, Threw Maps, and Told Zelensky – "Putin Will Destroy You"'
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
×