It is easy to get lost in the coronavirus statistics given the increasing numbers of cases and forget that behind the numbers represent real lives cut short, people who had families, children, careers and dreams, and all that was brought to a sudden end.

We are used to "a good death" being one where someone dies at a "right" age, surrounded with loved ones, but coronavirus has taken even this away.

The cruelty of the coronavirus-instigated death is how a person dies in isolated place, leaving loved ones with the pain and regret of having not been around their loved one and caring for him or her in that moment of finality.

People are dealing with this grief differently; Richard Mutabazi, the Mayor of Bugesera district, took to twitter to write about his cousin, Uwimbabazi Nadege, who succumbed to coronavirus recently after three weeks in ICU.

Nadege was 4 when her family was massacred in a church in Nyamata during the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi.

Mutabazi shares that “Nadège was a joyful person despite her struggles. She lost her parents in April 94 when she was only 4yrs old” “She was raised by her paternal uncle in her childhood, one could never identify her as an orphan since she coped with life and opted to positively embrace life”

He says during her sickness, Nadege never lost hope in life, “She was like I will be OK, she should be remembered by that resilience and choice of life”

 “I loved Nadège in a way that can't be explained, we had a strong tie. I am the firstborn of the family that raised her right after she survived. I gave myself an assignment to watch over her more than I did for my sisters of her age”

“I am the one who gave her first name (Nadège), as explained in my tweets, I wrote the tweets for two reasons: Her memory and my own therapy” said Mutabazi.

Nadege and one of her surviving brothers contracted the virus around the same time, and were both admitted into ICU.

Both their conditions deteriorated and were put on oxygen but in different hospitals. The brother was later discharged after his condition improved, but Nadege’s situation worsened, until she succumbed to the virus.

In a video shared on Twitter, she is seen showing people the exact location her parents were killed after Interahamwe militia threw a grenade in the Nyamata Catholic Church where her family had taken refuge.

 She was the youngest survivor among those that survived in the church, walking out intact, but an orphan in a world she didn’t recognise anymore.

Two of her brothers, one of whom had joined the RPA also survived. Justine Musabyeyezu is a relative of the late Nadege, the first time she saw her was when her family had just returned from Burundi.

She remembers Nadege walking with her older brother who was limping because shrapnel from a grenade was still lodged into his leg. Little Nadege could not walk fast, so Justine who was older then put her on her back, and this is a memory they both always went back to whenever they met.

Justine shares that despite the difficult life of being an orphan, Nadege lived and grew into a woman.

"She just chose to live, seeing her grow up you couldn’t know Nadege was an orphan, or that she went through such untold pain, she was happy and full of life” Nadege beat all odds, finished school and started her own family; she had two children, who upon her death were her world.

Her favourite thing to do was to take her kids out to restaurants and also do sports with them, after which she would post them on her social media platforms.