COVID-19 takes lives of Virginia father and son just days apart

COVID-19 has torn apart a Sanville family, leaving a grieving mother and widow alone to pick up those pieces.

Donna Shields’ husband, Bill Shields, died last Friday, and her son, Billy Shields, died on Monday.

Bill Shields, a retired businessman, was 72, and his son, an instructional aide at Sanville Elementary School, was 45.

The men contracted COVID-19 and were hospitalized in early October, according to regular Facebook updates made by Donna Shields’ niece, Tori Roach. Donna Shields had symptoms but never was hospitalized.

The three were members of Pleasant Grove Christian Church and were “very friendly, very outgoing and would do anything to help you. They were really well thought of in the community,” Minister Jim Pence said.

The elder Shields was “big and tall and strong but a gentle giant,” Pence said. “He was very sensitive about wanting to go help people and would do anything he could to help.”

The younger Shields had been treated for diabetes, but after he lost a great deal of weight, he was “getting it pretty much under control as far as he knew,” Pence said. “He was intentionally doing that through dieting, exercise and stuff. … He was in good shape, I thought.”

The two men were hospitalized for respiratory problems in addition to fatigue and joint pain from COVID-19, and Donna Shields talked about feeling “very tired all the time, and achy and had a cough” for about 2 weeks, Pence said.

Bill Shields served in the Army in Germany and was retired after a 45-year career with the High Point Sprinkler company. He and Donna had been married for 48 years. His obituary described him as a fun-loving man who loved to travel and lived life to its fullest.

Billy Shields was a 1994 graduate of Fieldale-Collinsville High School and attended Coastal Carolina University.

His obituary describes an artistic nature, stating he had been a display designer for Belk, and worked for Macy’s in Virginia Beach and Lynchburg.

In recent years he had been working with helping children learn, while he was finishing an undergraduate degree in psychology at Liberty University.

In 2013 Billy Shields began working as an instructional aide at Sanville with a primary focus on assisting students with disabilities, Sanville Principal Joshua Eanes wrote in an email.

“To try and explain what he means to us as a school would be impossible,” Eanes wrote.

“His dedication to see our students be successful is a testament to his overall love for helping children succeed. What we can say of Billy can be described as a person of fortitude, of high expectations, and selflessness above all. All of his colleagues would call him a friend,” Eanes wrote.

Billy Shields also had been the facilitator of the Spencer-Penn Centre’s SPICE (Spencer-Penn Investing in Children’s Education) program, which serves 24 students at each of four schools, for about three years. He handled the Spencer-Penn site over the summer and the Sanville site during the school year, Centre Executive Director Susan King Sabin said.

“He was one of the driving forces in getting coaches, getting things set up, getting our facilitators for our other sites trained,” she said.

“He went above and beyond in everything he did. … His nickname was Sir Spice-A-Lot because it fit him so well – he was SPICE. His coaches loved him, the kids loved him, we loved him. He was just really special.”

Billy Shields “lit up a room when he walked in. He was just so kind and so thoughtful. … He had the most laid-back, soothing personality,” she said.

“It was weird” when they stopped hearing from him in early October, because she and he had been in contact nearly every day, Sabin said. When they realized he had been hospitalized for COVID-19, the staff prayed for him often.

Getting the news of his passing was difficult. “We had never lost a staff member before,” Sabin said. “It’s like family.”

Billy Shields and his mother enjoyed traveling together, including annual birthday trips to Myrtle Beach and many trips to Las Vegas, his obituary stated. He loved Dolly Parton’s music and his cats, Truman and Butterscotch.

“He loved his mama – oh, gosh, he loved his mama,” Sabin said. “I think she was his best friend.”

“We continue to send our thoughts and love to Donna,” Eanes wrote. “She is a major part of our school community as well and is among some of the strongest people in the face of adversity that I have spoken with.”