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Willie Nelson is recounting a 2022 case of COVID that left him asking his wife, Annie D’Angelo, to “let me die.” The country musician recalls the experience in his new book, “The Last Leaf: Reflections on Late-Life
Creativity — and My Longest Love Affair,” an excerpt of which was published by People.
“I had the nebulizer on you, and a Q-tip up your nose to test for COVID-19,” D’Angelo wrote. (Given Nelson doesn’t remember much of the bout, he quotes his wife in the book.) “I got the oxygen going to keep you breathing, but it wasn’t working. You still couldn’t breathe. The COVID-19 test came up positive. I knew not to panic, but I also knew this was bad… In the back of the bus, you stayed isolated and grew sicker. I wasn’t sure you would make it. I alerted Dr. Greenwood that we were on our way and asked to have a mobile monoclonal antibody guy meet us at the cabin.”
She continued: “Meanwhile, you got sicker with every passing hour. Every labored breath caused you incredible pain. I wanted to do more, but I’d done all I could. I just had to sit there and watch you suffer. It was the worst thing I’ve ever had to do.”
Nelson wrote that “all I can remember is feeling excruciating pain in every cell of my body. Am I right in remembering that I said, ‘Annie, you need to let me go’?” “That’s just what you said,” responded D’Angelo. Instead of going to a hospital (which D’Angelo described as “not an option” given Nelson would have “no chance of privacy”), Wilson was given Paxlovid in an IV infusion, which helped with the illness. It was “two weeks of utter hell,” said D’Angelo, to which Nelson asked: “Did I ask you to let me die?” “Yup, twice,” she responded. “The whole thing was a nightmare.”
Nelson and D’Angelo tied the knot in 1991 and share two sons, Lukas and Micah. Nelson’s memoir hit shelves Tuesday.
