Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker choked up a few times during his daily coronavirus press briefing on Wednesday.
Baker said he is deeply saddened by the loss of the life of a loved one.
"My best friend lost his mom to COVID," Baker said.
He went on to say that his friend and his mother "had a great relationship" and never left anything unsaid.
"I mean, you just knew that about the two of them," Baker said. "This wasn't going to be one of those situations where, you know, 'Oh, my gosh. I wish I had the chance to tell her whatever or to tell my son whatever.' I mean, that never happened with them."
Still, he said losing a relative is an "extraordinarily painful process," but the pandemic has made it even more difficult because it has cheated people out of "critical rituals that people believe in," such as sharing a last hug or final goodbye.
"When you talk about where the numbers are going with all of this, what I'm really thinking about is all the people who aren't going to have a chance to say goodbye," said Baker. "And I really hope that people have a chance to make sure that they don't leave anything off the table with respect to their loved ones."
He also spoke about his life, including his relationship with his wife, as well as his father.
"My wife gives me a hard time all the time about the fact that Baker men never really say what they think about anything to anybody about personal things and even on these goofy phone calls that I have with my dad,I try to say more because you just don't know anymore what the future is going to hold. And I really hope that people understand that their health care community and the folks who are going to be responsible for helping us work our way through this surge are going to do everything they possibly can to save as many people as we possibly can so that they don't have to deal with this situation and their family and friends don't have to deal with it."
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