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Grappling with grief, N.B. man and fiance forced to take care of family farm as COVID-19 strikes family

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CARLINGFORD, N.B. -

Joe Gee looks out over the sprawling, sun-soaked farm in the west-central New Brunswick community of Carlingford, which has been in his family for generations.

His father, Allison Gee, spent his entire life farming here alongside his own father and his brother – a man with a strong work ethic and determination who never quite retired, working in the fields here into his early seventies.

"My father, he's been saying for the last 10 years, he's been saying it's going to be his last year growing corn, it's going to be my last year growing vegetables," says his son. "This year he said, this is my last year for sure, and he was right."

His father was hospitalized at the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville after contracting COVID-19, and on Friday, he passed away – one of the now 68 New Brunswickers to have died from the virus since the start of the pandemic.

In his obituary, it describes a kind man, a proud husband, father and grandfather, who "loved his family, taking road trips, farming, peddling vegetables, working in the woods and passing his legacy onto his grandson."

"You just rely on social media to say goodbye, and it's the same social media that was used by conspiracy theorists to perpetuate misinformation, so there's a lot of irony there," says Gee.

His uncle remains in hospital with COVID-19 and Gee says although he is stable and doing okay, doctors do not know how long he'll need to stay hospitalized.

Gee and his fiancé, Tracey, are the only ones in the family who have been vaccinated – and as he grapples with grief – he's left to take care of the family farm.

"The snow's going to be flying pretty soon, and there's hay to haul, there's corn to harvest, there's wood to get in – all those things that my father and my uncle would be doing right now."

In the wake of his father's death, he's working on a lawn sign campaign, so that people who are fully vaccinated can display their status outside of their home if they wish.

It's a push to encourage those who are able to, to get vaccinated, and a campaign that for Gee, is deeply personal.

"People driving down the road thinking, 'no one's getting vaccinated, I'm not getting vaccinated, when you're driving down the road and you see house after house after house of all these families who got themselves vaccinated to protect our community – you're going to feel like a minority."

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