Raleigh, NC – Jan Liggins monitors the coronavirus daily statistics in North Carolina, wondering what could have been if the pandemic hadn’t been so bad.
“I always look at this number when it comes to TV, but I tell myself, ‘It should be with one less.’ It should be 10 less, “Liggins said.” This pandemic should not have gone that far if people did the right thing and continued to be safe. “
North Carolina had more than 10,000 deaths during the pandemic on Tuesday. Liggins’ father, Ricky David Liggins, 70, was one of them.
“I never thought it would happen to us,” said Jan Liggins. “This is the first thing you think of. You never think it will happen to you or your family.”
Ricky Liggins joined the Marine Corps reserves and became a Raleigh police officer, where he eventually became a senior officer and served on the SWAT team.
“He enjoyed working with people and thought it would be a good opportunity to help others,” said his wife, Deborah Liggins, about her law enforcement career. “He felt it was a call. He liked it.”
The couple met in adolescence at a blind meeting for a dance at the Armory of the National Guard in Zebulon and married in August 1969.
“Growing up, we did almost everything together and it was fun. It was so much fun,” Jan Liggins said of the close family.
Ricky Liggins continued the family’s close ties with his only niece, Adriana Liggins.
“He was so close to her. He would take her shopping, eat, and stuff,” Deborah Liggins said.
“I used to call him every night before I went to bed,” said Adriana Liggins, now 21, of Meredith College.
“She didn’t miss any of my dance recitals, not even at Meredith’s,” she said. “After [each], he would have said, “Oh, you did so great.” “
Ricky Liggins, who retired from the Raleigh Police Department in 2000, thought he had the flu last fall, but then began coughing up blood. His wife took him to WakeMed.
“Of course, I couldn’t get in and it was the last time I saw him until he passed,” she said. “It was a terrible, terrible experience.”
Tests showed he had coronavirus, and his symptoms were so severe that he reached a ventilator in the intensive care unit.
“I think it was such a shock to him, because he was always so healthy,” said Deborah Liggins. “He told me, ‘I shouldn’t be here.’ He took his vitamins, trained, exercised regularly, ate well. “
When the family managed to talk to him on the phone, the conversations were short because of his breathing difficulties, she said.
“I didn’t know anything about his feelings and what was happening to him,” his wife said. “I had high hopes [for recovery]. She was the strongest person I’ve ever met. He was never afraid of anything and he was like my Superman, my hero. “
But then Ricky Liggins suffered a virus-related stroke and a neurologist told the family to prepare for the worst.
He said: “If he succeeds – and I really don’t think he will – he will never know who you are. She will need 24-hour care, “said Deborah Liggins.
She knew he would not want to enjoy the support of life, so she, her daughter and her niece then matched up with protective gear to briefly visit him at the ICU and say goodbye.
Ricky Liggins died on November 4.
“He fought. He fought hard,” Deborah Liggins said.
Raleigh police officers greeted the flagged coffin when he was buried at Gethsemane Memorial Gardens in Zebulon.
“He’s buried with his flip phone,” Adriana Liggins said of the phone she used to ring all the time. “It was filmed with duct tape. He liked his flip phone.”