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This is part of a Yahoo News Series honoring some of the American lives lost to COVID-19. Their stories are told by family and friends, who had to deal with their often sudden and painful deaths.
Carmelina Inchaustegui, 77, of Miami, died on January 17, 2021, following a nearly month-long battle with COVID-19. She is among the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have lost their lives to the disease since the coronavirus pandemic began in early 2020.
Inchaustegui immigrated to the United States from Cuba in the early sixties, shortly after Fidel Castro took control of the island on January 1, 1959. The Cuban Revolution triggered the largest flow of refugees to the United States. United in history, and Inchaustegui was one of over a million Cubans who fled the island and came to the United States in search of a better life.
Like many Cuban exiles, she settled in Miami. Her daughter Jennifer de Castroverde told Yahoo News that she was a staple of the Cuban community in exile and that she was known and loved by many: “She was known to the rich, the poor, politicians and even criminals. “
Her favorite spot, said de Castroverde, was the beer garden window at Versailles, a long-standing Cuban restaurant in the heart of Little Havana.
“It has become a real tourist hot spot, but it is also a place of nostalgia. It’s a place where the Cuban community comes together, and you’ll find generations of individuals still talking about Cuba. They talk about Cuba in the past, they talk about Cuba now, they talk about politics. They talk about music. … It was my mom’s favorite place, ”she says.
Her mother, de Castroverde says, “has never had it easy.” She raised her two children as a single mother and worked many jobs so that she could get them to private school and support themselves. Jennifer, who is an acting professor at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, says her mother’s unconditional love and hard work has made her successful in life.
Inchaustegui was hospitalized on December 24, 2020, after experiencing severe nausea. She was diagnosed with heart failure and was treated for it when she contracted COVID while in hospital. Her daughter told Yahoo News that Inchaustegui had been at home since mid-March last year and sacrificed nearly a year of her life in isolation to avoid catching the virus. It was devastating for her to learn that Inchaustegui had been infected at the hospital in just a few days.
De Castroverde told Yahoo News her mother is her best friend. She says losing Inchaustegui to the virus has been one of the most painful experiences of her life. But she says her mother’s biggest lesson gives her strength during this difficult time.
“She always said to me, ‘Jennifer, now you are a mother, and you have to move forward with your child. You must be a pillar of strength for your child. You cannot fall apart like you have a child. And that’s the thing that for me is the biggest lesson I learned from my mom, is how to be a great mom, because she was a great mom, ”said de Castroverde.
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