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Lost to coronavirus: Woman left storm-wracked Caribbean for new life in Florida
Palm Beach Daily News
By Eliot Kleinberg
Coronavirus: The Ones We Lost
Posted at 8:00 AM
Masela Westerman came to Florida for shelter from Caribbean storms and died here from the coronavirus.
Masela Westerman left her home in Nevis, in the Caribbean, for St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. When Hurricane Maria smashed that home in 2017, she came to the Delray Beach area, where her daughter and brother lived.
That’s where COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, took Westerman at age 59 on April 8 at Bethesda Hospital East.
Luann Westerman said April 27 from Palm Beach County that his sister suffered for years with both lupus and diabetes, and had lost part of one leg and toes on the other.
Masela Westerman had been born on Nevis, part of the tiny two-island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, about 230 miles southeast of Puerto Rico in the eastern Caribbean. She moved to St. Croix in 2013. After the storm ravaged St. Croix four years later, Masela was having trouble getting her medications, and came to Florida, her brother Westerman had dealt with family tragedy.
That’s where COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, took Westerman at age 59 on April 8 at Bethesda Hospital East.
Luann Westerman said April 27 from Palm Beach County that his sister suffered for years with both lupus and diabetes, and had lost part of one leg and toes on the other.
Masela Westerman had been born on Nevis, part of the tiny two-island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, about 230 miles southeast of Puerto Rico in the eastern Caribbean. She moved to St. Croix in 2013. After the storm ravaged St. Croix four years later, Masela was having trouble getting her medications, and came to Florida, her brother Westerman had dealt with family tragedy.
Read more: https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/20200607/lost-to-coronavirus-woman-left-storm-wracked-caribbean-for-new-life-in-florida
A sad snapshot of some of the interesting people we are losing to this virus and the challenges they faced even before.
