Joyce Kohut is being remembered by family members as a caring, compassionate person who was happiest when helping others.
The former Sault Ste. Marie resident died surrounded by family members in Ottawa Jan. 29 after succumbing to COVID-19. Kohut was 76 years old.
Daughter Kathleen Morley says her mother was seemingly on the rebound after receiving three rounds of radiation treatment for bone cancer. Kohut was diagnosed with cancer in April 2021, after having her annual screening postponed in 2020 due to provincial restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the day Kohut was due to be discharged from hospital, she developed a cough. The doctor wanted to keep her overnight due to the fact that she was highly immunocompromised.
“The cough worsened overnight, and in the morning, her test came back positive,” recalled Morley, speaking with SooToday from Hamilton, Ont. Thursday. “So instead of discharging her, she went to the COVID unit to be isolated.”
Morley says her mother had multiple roommates in hospital. Some were vaccinated, some were not, she said.
“No wonder she caught it, she had no immunity,” she said. “Radiation destroys your immunity, and everything about cancer destroys your immunity.
“She was a sitting duck in there.”
Kohut seemed to be doing alright in the COVID unit. She had a cough, but her oxygen levels remained relatively stable.
Suddenly, Kohut’s health would start declining. She was moved into the intensive care unit and placed on Biphasic Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP), a supply of high-flow oxygen.
Kohut’s frequent texts to her two daughters would eventually cease.
Fearing the worst, Morley travelled from Hamilton to Ottawa to be with her mother, encountering what she describes as a ‘slow roll’ outside of Peterborough at the same time the occupation of downtown Ottawa by the so-called freedom convoy was taking place.
“That’s great, they have a point to make - why do they think impinging on my freedom to see my mother who is dying is acceptable, when they are yelling and screaming about their freedoms,” she said. “I don’t really think they understand what freedom means.
“Why are their freedoms more important than mine? I don’t understand.”
Kohut died just after 3 a.m. on Jan. 29 with her family by her side.
“She did not die of cancer. She died of COVID, 100 per cent,” Morley said.
'She was a gorgeous lady, inside and out'
Jim and Joyce Kohut built a life together in Sault Ste. Marie for three decades.
Jim remembers his wife as a “very caring, compassionate person” who loved animals and helping others, and was known in Sault Ste. Marie for being a life member of the Sault Musical Comedy Guild, just like her father, the late Jim Ogden.
She also started the now-defunct humane education program for the Sault Ste. Marie Humane Society.
After moving to Ottawa in 2014, she worked with Seniors for Seniors, a group that helps seniors in long-term care facilities and nursing homes.
Although the Kohuts built a home in Ottawa 10 years ago, Jim would keep a place in the Sault in order to look out for his mother.
“Long-distance romances do work, it’s true,” Jim said.
Jim held his wife’s hand for three hours before she slipped away.
“The minister asked what it was like when we first met, and I said, ‘I’ll be brutally honest, I met Joyce and she stole my heart - and when she left, she took it with her,’” he said, fighting back emotion as he spoke. “She was a gorgeous lady, inside and out.”
'The virus is not done with us'
Morley recently shared the story of her mother’s death with the Ottawa Citizen. The article contained some takes regarding the impact of COVID-19 and the presence of the freedom convoy in Ottawa.
The backlash to that article is still being felt today, Morley said.
“People found me on Facebook and sent me messages,” she said. “What level of inhumanity and callousness does it take to send somebody you don’t know on a social media platform a big long message about your take about immunology cloaked in a fake condolence?”
Morley works as a nurse in a long-term care home in the Halton Region. She says COVID-19 “mowed through” her workplace during the pandemic, resulting in a number of residents dying due to the virus.
“I work with three nurses who are left from dozens from two years ago. Everybody else has left my workplace because they can’t take it - the stress, the hours, the disrespect from the public,” she said. “It’s too much, and I don’t blame them one iota.”
An outspoken advocate for vaccines, Morley stresses that “COVID is not done with us.”
“I don’t know why there’s a perception out there that COVID is getting better. It is not getting better, the numbers are still high - they’re inaccurate because they’re not even testing people,” she said. “There are COVID patients dying every day. Dying every day.
“And I don’t understand why there is a perception right now that we’re kind of done with it. The virus is not done with us.”
Morley agreed to an interview with SooToday in spite of the potential for further backlash.
“If I can prevent one family from going through what I’m going through, then it’s worth it. My mother would want me to do that,” she said. “My mother never shied away from a fight. She stood up for what she believed in, and it doesn’t always win you friends.
“But she would've wanted me to do this.”