Covid: The pandemic's young widows and widowers

There have been over 430,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the US, and that includes many younger men and women whose partners have been left suddenly widowed. Alone and with young families to raise, they set up a Facebook support group. Two members spoke with BBC OS radio.

Pamela Addison lost her 44-year-old husband, Martin, in the early weeks of the pandemic.

"He was just the sweetest, kindest person out there," the mother of two says.

"He really loved life and loved being a dad. He even wrote a song about me which I found on his phone after he died. It was a beautiful thing to find because it just showed how much he loved me."

Martin fell ill on 22 March, developing a cough shortly after their daughter's second birthday.

Eventually diagnosed with Covid-19, the last time Pamela was with him was when he was being taken to hospital from their New Jersey home. She had called emergency services when she heard him struggling for air on 3 April.

Martin worked as a speech pathologist in a hospital, and it's thought he caught the virus there.

He spent 26 days in hospital, which Pamela says were "the most stressful days of my life".

"On our wedding anniversary I was talking to him over a Skype call while a lovely nurse was holding his hand," she recalls.