'He swept me off my feet:' Lee County firefighter dies of COVID-19 before wedding day

Since March, more than 180,000 people statewide have tested positive for the virus, but most of them, a reported 156,652, have recovered.

Another 1,523 infections were reported, and 938 people are currently hospitalized.

With a steady increase in numbers too large to fully envision, it can be difficult to imagine what over 3,000 deaths really looks like – and what kind of impact that really is.

Every one of these deaths was an individual – with a family, a story and a legacy.

One North Carolina family gives a glimpse of what might have been for a firefighter in Lee County – one of the thousands who have died.

In a shed by a pond, a Harley Davidson sits idle, as if waiting for a rev up that will never come.

Wanda Ciechowski imagines places they would go, if only her fiancée Herman Reed were still with her today.

"We enjoyed riding. We rode every chance we would get," she said.

They would have gone to the Blue Ridge Parkway this fall to see the leaves together.

And they would have walked down the aisle.

"Big Herm," as he was called, did a most romantic thing: In front of 500 people, during a performance of "Love and Marriage," he asked Wanda Ciechowski to be his wife.

"I was just so surprised. He swept me off my feet. That was just the kind of man he was," said Ciechowski.

At 52 years old, he was the kind of man who rushed into burning buildings to save lives, volunteering at the Lemon Springs Fire Department.

He was the kind of man who recently stayed up all night long to make sure a stranger with a broken-down car made it home.

His day job was fixing buses for Lee County Schools.

And then, in early August, he got sick.

"We talked all the time about different things," said Ciechowski. "We had talked about growing old together and just making so many memories together. It was kind of devastating when this happened."

A man named "Big Herm," who rides rushes into burning buildings and rides a Harley, may seem unbreakable and larger than life.

But when he began to have trouble breathing, the test confirmed it was COVID-19.

He spent nearly three weeks at the UNC Hospital, hooked up to a ventilator.

On August 24, Herman Reed joined that tragic roll call.

The woman he wanted to grow old with now thinks of all the others who have lost loved ones to COVID-19.

"It hurts my heart. Because I know how it made me feel, losing someone," she said.

In a statement on Friday, the Lemon Springs Volunteer Fire Department joined others in expressing sadness over Reed's death.

"Herman Reed was a faithful and dedicated member of the Lemon Springs Volunteer Fire Department for ten years and four months. In his time on the fire department, he served the community selflessly and courageously, always there to lend a helping hand to his fellow fire department family and to the community he cherished so much. Firefighter Reed always had a smile on his face and would ensure that anyone around him would as well. He was a man that never met a stranger and could get along with anyone. Firefighter Reed will truly be missed by the Lemon Springs Volunteer Fire Department."