And so, 14 COVID-related deaths between Friday and Sunday - but how can so many lives just go like that? Were at 116 dead due to COVID since March, and indeed, the statistics numb us all - but behind the numbers, there are people, beloved family members and friends gone too soon, dying alone in an isolation ward.
This weekend 43 year old PR man and part time media personality Ian Mariano was one of them - and to give some depth and feeling to that numbing death toll, we spoke to his best friend senior customs officer Gilbert Gordon about the deep imprint of this one life gone too soon due to COVID. Here's his interview via Zoom:
Gilbert Gordon, Friend of the Deceased
"Ian Mariano Senior better known as genius was what you would call a very special and a unique person that I believe God gave a special talent to be able to speak and to be able to speak to people in such a way that he would connect to them."
"I remember we started out with The Heavenlies gospel band and Ian came to me and he said G, I can't sing, he said god didn't give me that talent but he gave me the talent to talk and so I said okay. He said if you give me the opportunity I could turn the Heavenlies gospel band into a household name and during that time the Heavenlies gospel band we basically won several national awards."
"And Ian, his marketing style and skills were always something of positivity and based on that as a group we would joke to him and say Ian you're at a level where you could sell Ice to Eskimos."
And he next used that marketing genius to popularize the Hurricanes basketball team - building it from scratch:
Gilbert Gordon, Friend of the Deceased
"And so we sat in my house one night and we said listen, we need to write the league and ask them to be part of the national basketball league but we need a name, and so we thought of a name of how we could come about be able to be this force to reckoned with and I spoke to Ian and we came up with the name the Belize Hurricanes and Ian said yes, because we are going to be a category 5."
"And within that 5 year period the hurricanes won a championship and a sub-championship and we were always in the house, we marketed like no other. And that was all because of Ian's ability to connect to people, to reach out to people."
But, the next time he would reach out to people - would be when his family was appealing for blood to save his life. He'd contracted COVID and found out only after a serious allergic reaction:
Gilbert Gordon, Friend of the Deceased
"It happened last week Thursday, early Friday morning that Ian had breathing issues and so they took him to the KHMH, because he had an allergy attack and so he took a medication for the allergy and because of the allergy that has his face swollen, they took him in and they also swabbed hin and tested him for covid and the found that he was also Covid positive and Ian also had this this diabetic underlying sickness and based on that coupled with Covid I think that is what created the advancement in Ian's deterioration, that they had to put him in an induced intubated coma and I think that, I am not certaon, but I believe that when they were trying to bring him out of the coma was when he succumbed to his sickness, but what I can say is that Covid is something that is very serious and I think that the nation of Belize need to realize the seriousness of this virus. Because what I can see Jules is that we are operating like a carefree society and people are people are moving around without this recognition and people are dying every single day. If you look at the results from every day report we can see that 5-6 people are dying and for a country like Belize that's a lot especially from a virus that requires discipline. A virus that requires individual to be able to know that you are also responsible for your brother. There's no way myself as his best friend would be able to replace Ian Mariano. There's no one like him, his energy like what you mentioned, the energy that he brings every single time he holds the mic and I think that's the problem that Ian has once Ian gets that mic in his hands, the rest is history."
Mariano's funeral is set for tomorrow.
