This story is part of a series: Inside Ireland's Covid Battle "We had a wonderful life, it just ended disastrously." The haunting words of 94-year-old Maura Byrne.
2020 should have seen Maura celebrating 70 years of marriage to her beloved husband and lifelong partner Stephen (93). Instead, Maura lost Stephen unexpectedly in April when he died having contracted Covid-19. "He was a wonderful husband," Maura says. "And I'm not just saying that because he's gone.
He really was. He was the plumbing supervisor in Guinness." In fact, Stephen Byrne had worked at the Guinness Brewery for almost 40 years.
In later years, he suffered with dementia and was cared for by Maura until moving to a nursing home last year. When Stephen passed away in April,