According to his family and colleagues, a Las Vegas-based Southwest Airlines flight attendant died on Tuesday at COVID-19.
According to Marcia Hildress, native New Yorker Maurice “Reggie” Shepherson, nicknamed Skittles in brightly colored trousers during training in 2014, was COVID-positive in early July and spent a month in the hospital. I was fighting a virus. A flight attendant in the southwest who called him her best friend.
He was on ventilator and died early Tuesday, his mother, Dawn Sheparson, told USA today. The nurse told her it was from COVID.
Sheparson, 36, was completely vaccinated, said his mother and Hildress. He loved to fly, wore masks, constantly washed his hands, disinfected the surface, wiped everything in the hotel room, and took all precautions, Hildress said.
“It was so fast that it hurt so much,” said Dawn Sheparson. This is amazing. That’s not true. That’s not true. That’s not true. ””
Hilldress said she couldn’t believe it either.
“I miss my friends,” she said.
Southwest spokesman Brandy King confirmed that a Las Vegas-based employee had died on Tuesday, but declined to provide details. Sheparson’s mother said the airline contacted her and Hilldress said Southwest contacted her after Sheparson’s death and separated her from her business trip so she could return home on Wednesday.
“I’m saddened by the loss of Southwestern employees. I respect my family, so I don’t have any additional information to share,” King said in a statement.
Southwest Airlines and other airlines have not released statistics on COVID cases and flight crew deaths. Flight Attendants Association on behalf of United, Frontier, Spirit and Hawaiian Airlines flight attendants in particular-CWA estimates that 4,000 flight attendants on all airlines in the United States were infected with the virus and 20 died. increase.
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Sheparson worked throughout the pandemic and was separated from work several times due to COVID-19 exposure, Hildress said. But he wasn’t positive until July, she said.
Sheparson was what my colleagues called a high flyer. He made more business trips than others. Partly to make money and partly to travel wherever he can.
Kiki Lee attended Sheparson’s flight attendant training class in 2014 in Dallas, Southwest.
After five weeks of training, she and the other newly built flight attendants just wanted to go home. Sheparson has begun using employee flight benefits. Lee, one of his first trips was a trip to China.
“He was using his profits to hit the sky the right way. He loved his job and his perks,” Lee said.
Sheparson’s Facebook page shows his travel adventures, including several business trips to Hawaii. In June he took his mother. His mother said it was one of his last trips to the southwest before testing him as positive.
“He loved traveling and anyone who knew him knew he loved his mother,” Lee said.
Another Las Vegas-based Southwest Airlines flight attendant, Travis Pitman, met Sheparson when he moved from Tampa to Nevada in 2016.
“The appearance of New York can be hard off, but he was like a teddy bear, very sweet on the inside and very affectionate. It’s a lot of fun to be around.”
According to Sheparson at dawn, after his father died at the age of 14, Reggie, who grew up himself, was proud every time he walked through the southwestern terminal of the airport.
“A man I don’t even know, when I found out that I was Reggie’s mother,” Maam, you did a great job. This is a good young man, “she said. “As a mother, I am very fortunate and proud because I only wanted to raise my son properly in my life.”
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This article was originally published in USA TODAY: Southwest Airlines flight attendant dies at COVID-19