Colin and Lee Lee at their home in Geelong, Australia, last week. Photo / Christina Simons, The New York Times
Colin and Lee Lee at their home in Geelong, Australia, last week. Photo / Christina Simons, The New York Times
When Australia had just a few coronavirus cases, Lee and Colin Lee decided to self-quarantine to keep resources available for younger people. "We've just got to share what's there," Mr. Lee said.
When Lee Lee developed a raspy cough three weeks ago, there were only a handful of coronavirus cases in Australia. No one was talking yet of social distancing, but when Lee's doctor swabbed her for a coronavirus test, she and her husband got to thinking.
If hospitals were to become overwhelmed and their grandchildren or great-grandchildren got sick, doctors would face a terrible choice.
"It occurred to us that if push came to shove, although we are certainly not tired of living, we've had a pretty good bite, and we'd want the limited resources given to them rather than taking them ourselves," Lee said.
So though her test came back negative, Lee, 72, a former human resources consultant, and her husband, Colin Lee, 86, a former police officer, decided to self-isolate. No more volunteering or group lunches, nothing really, beyond the backyard of their home in Geelong, outside Melbourne, where socialising was reduced to a tree filled with rainbow lorikeets.
Their decision came from knowing the splendour of a second chance. They met 16 years ago in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, airport after both of their spouses had died. A Jewish New Yorker, she was dropping off a friend. An Anglican Brit who lived in Australia, he could barely stand after 40 hours of travel weighted by grief.
Together, they traveled, moved back to Australia and married. Together, with the virus threatening, the last thing they wanted was to take away someone else's serendipity, hospital bed or life.
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"We all have to care about each other because it's no longer the kind of war where you can let your neighbour go to the devil and take care of yourself," Lee Lee said.
Colin Lee agreed: "We've just got to share what's there, share sensibly."
Like many others, they were stunned by all the hoarding that's gone on in Australia and elsewhere. Character and calm, in their view, should not be harder to find than toilet paper.
Colin Lee, white-haired and wearing a bright smile in family photos, said by phone last week that he began his days with the news. He often found echoes of World War II and the Great Depression: the anxiety and uncertainty spreading across continents; the soaring death tolls; the not knowing where to go or when it will end.
"People everywhere are being shut up and scared to go outside," he said. "It is dangerous, at least in our age group."
He said he wasn't frightened. Just contemplative.
Books were good company. Inside day after day, the Lees became enthralled with "Burke and Wills," Peter FitzSimons' rollicking account of Australia's most famous explorers. It's not a short book. It fit their routines just fine.
"The best part of it is that life has slowed down a little bit," Lee Lee said. "I don't seem to be rushing around trying to accomplish as much. The worst part of it is that life has slowed down a bit, and I don't seem to be rushing around trying to accomplish as much."
But even in isolation, life is no less fragile. Late last week, Colin Lee started complaining about feeling cold. His wife put a warm jacket on him, a winter hat and gloves, and called the doctor. An ambulance arrived a few minutes later.
In the emergency room, Colin Lee was isolated. Lee Lee stayed with him in a mask and hospital gown. A chest X-ray revealed pneumonia, and he was swabbed for the coronavirus.
On Saturday, the test came back negative. But his sickness did not subside, and he was placed on a ventilator to aid his breathing — Australia's outbreak has not yet overwhelmed the health care system.
On Tuesday at 4am, he opened his eyes and seemed to look at something just above his wife.
"I kissed him and told him that he had run a good race, but that it was time to rest," Lee Lee said. A few breaths later, he was gone.
On Wednesday, she emailed the last photo taken of her husband while he was alive. All it showed was her hand holding his. The subject line: Heartbreak.
"He was the best man that God ever made," she said, "and I am completely undone."
