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COVINGTON COUNTY, Ala. (WDHN) — COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are on the rise but on Friday we learned the number of Alabamians getting their vaccine has also increased across our state.

In fact, According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, the vaccination rate has increased for every one of the states 67 counties.

For the past 42 years, Alan Cotton and his wife Angie Cotton worked together on daily making arrangements for people’s special and not-so-special occasions. That all came to an end when COVID struck.

“Ten days,” Cotton said. “The first week she really fought, very weak through all of that. They finally did put her on a ventilator and after the ventilator, she lasted about a day. It was just too far gone, they couldn’t do anything about it.”

Due to an allergy to medications, Cotton said his wife Angie was advised not to get vaccinated. This is why he is urging people to just do their part because they have no idea where Angie could have caught the deadly virus.

Cotton said he was never really able to say an official goodbye to his wife and best friend.

“We had to look at her through a window,” Cotton said. “I wouldn’t want that on anyone that is very heart-tugging and very sad on her part and on our part. Just get out and get vaccinated, you just need to do it.”

The feeling of unbearable pain for a loss that could have been prevented, is the main reason why Cotton is begging fellow Alabamians to just roll up their sleeves and take their vaccine.

Cotton tells WDHN News, “cruel” is the only way he can describe the COVID-19 virus. He said every hospitalization and even death can be prevented if people just go out and get their vaccine.

He wants people to really think about the suffering the virus causes not only to the victim but also to their families when they are deciding not to get vaccinated because in his wife’s case if more people were vaccinated she could possibly still be here arranging bouquets.

“They told me, they said “Alan, we really can’t do anything about it, it’s just that far along in her body,” Cotton said. “Her lungs were completely filled with COVID, there was just nothing they could do about it and they was the end of it.”