Father of 8 was set to get 2nd vaccine dose, but contracted COVID-19 and died

Gordon Ballard, a 65-year-old husband and father of eight, died on May 17, 2021, two weeks after he tested positive for COVID-19.

This Father's Day will be an especially difficult one for many of the more than 600,000 American families mourning the death of a loved one to COVID-19. Among those is the Ballard family in North Carolina, grappling with the loss of their patriarch. Gordon Ballard, a devoted husband and father of eight who pushed through a lifelong illness to provide for his family, died of COVID-19 on May 17, 2021, his daughter said. The 65-year-old tested positive two weeks earlier, on May 3 -- the same day he was set to get his second vaccine dose.