Editor’s note: This is one of a continuing online series of profiles of the more than 12,000 Hoosiers who have died from COVID-19. The stories are from 12 Indiana newspapers, including The Republic, who collaborated to create the collection to highlight the tremendous loss that the pandemic has created. The series appears daily at therepublic.com.
Name: Clyde Shady
City/Town: Bluffton
Age: 82
Died: Nov. 11
Clyde Shady was a hard working man until he had a stroke in 2018.
He and his wife Phyllis Shady lived at Christian Care Retirement Community, but by 2020, his wife lived in the independent section, while he needed more care.
He was well known in the community for his award-winning gardening. Some favorites were his strawberries in the summer and his pumpkins, gourds, squash and Indian corn in the fall. He and his wife were active members at First Baptist Church, where they were married in 1958.
Phyllis Shady, 79, died on April 20. While her death wasn’t due to COVID-19, the pandemic had already caused restrictions to be put in place, including at Christian Care. Clyde Shady could not be with his wife when she died because of that protocol.
In June, Christian Care posted a photo to Facebook of Clyde holding a sign to his family: “Hello, I’m doing fine. Love, Dad.”
Due to restrictions, his son had not even been able to clean out his deceased mother’s apartment yet. Her service wasn’t held until September.
When he was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Nov. 3, Clyde Shady told his son that he knew he couldn’t fight it because of his current condition. His oxygen levels could not keep up. He died on Nov. 11 of COVID-related pneumonia.
— Contributed by the Bluffton News-Banner
