ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — Tragedy struck congressional candidate Yehudis Gottesfeld in the middle of her battle for the Republican line in the race for the 17th New York Congressional District. Both her grandfathers died of COVID-19 during the pandemic.

Her paternal grandfather lived in Rockland County. The disease came on so quickly the family didn’t have time to get him to the hospital. Her maternal grandfather lived in Brooklyn. He was hospitalized for 20 days, with no one allowed to visit.

“It was a mess specially at the beginning,” Gottesfeld told Patch. “My father, as a precaution, had to self-isolate.”

The first shock was losing her dad’s dad March 28. “My cousin just got engaged virtually. We all thought he would be there.”

The other got sick in March and died April 13. “It’s always different when you don’t get to say goodbye,” she said. “I was talking to my grandmother on the phone and she was crying. ‘They’re not letting me in.’ All she wanted to do was be there for him.”

Both in their late 70s, they were very different, but both were giving men who worked hard through their lives to provide stable homes for their families, she said.

“Going through the experience you really feel the pain of others. It makes me have an increased desire to really represent people,” said Gottesfeld, who lost her 17-year-old brother two years ago to cancer. “It’s an emotional ride. The reason I started the campaign was because of times like these. It only makes me fight harder.”

Better preparation for pandemics and more scientific research could have made a difference in finding ways to fight the outbreak and care for patients, she said.

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