PINE BLUFF, Ark. — Researchers rely heavily on data to tell stories or look closely at problems we need to solve, much like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arkansas continues to see positive signs as active cases continue on a downward trend.
It's important that we go beyond the numbers.
Each case represents a person and that person could be our family, friends and loved ones.
The Williams family in Pine Bluff is one of the those families hit hard by COVID-19.
Their patriarch died from complications of the virus on July 31st and things have not been easy.
Their faith and fond memories are helping them cope with this loss.
For 8 hours every weekday, Deborah Williams teaches math to nearly 120 high schoolers.
"He did everything for everybody. He was our chauffeur, he was our help, and to anything that anybody needed to do, he was there to do it," Deborah said.
Days after a Fourth of July celebration, the entire family, except their youngest, contracted COVID. David Williams and his two daughters were admitted to the hospital.
One of his daughters was admitted to the same ICU floor as him.
"I was at a workshop in Hot Springs and he called me, so I had to come home from the workshop early," Deborah said.
David's two daughters recovered days later and were able to go home.
He did not.
"We expected David to get out and we expected him to come home and it just didn't happen," Deborah said.
His wife texted him the morning of July 26th to check in on David.
His last text to Deborah is something that will stick with her for the rest of her life.
"He said, 'I'm tired and I'm ready to go home.' He didn't say 'I'm ready to come home,' he said 'I'm ready to go home' and that's what he did," she said.
For one of his daughters, Jaden, she said he was more than just a dad.
"He was my best friend and he was my son's best friend," Jaden said.
She remembers being pregnant at 16-years-old and being a bit nervous, but her fondest memory is when her dad stuck with her, every step of the way.
"He actually took me to my first doctor's appointment and he went with me to every appointment after that because my mom was working," Jaden said.
Nothing will ever fill the void that the family's go-to guy left behind.
As David's family continues to survive, his wife wants any family going through this to remember one thing.
"Don't relish the bad times. Look forward to those good times and find faith," she said.
Remarkably, the entire family is keeping good spirits.
Deborah said when David worked the graveyard shift, they rarely saw each other so they would write to each other in a book.
Even after his death, she said she still writes in the book every day.