A year later, Ebola victim's fiancee cherishes memories
DALLAS – Louise Troh has few things left from a year ago; mostly documents and photos.
She opened a drawer in her apartment living room to show us the pictures that survived her family's quarantine during Dallas' Ebola virus scare in 2014. Almost everything else had been destroyed.
"It brings back all the memories," Troh said, as she looked at a photo of her 42-year-old fiance, Thomas Eric Duncan, taken when he was younger.
Seeing his picture is very painful for her. It is especially hard seeing it constantly on different news mediums. For Louise Troh, the woman whose fiance was the only person to die of Ebola in the U.S., it hasn't been much easier a year later.
"It's very, very fresh in my mind," she said.
Sept. 30 is a significant date for Troh and her family. Duncan had just arrived from West Africa several days earlier. Troh said he showed no signs of sickness when he arrived. But on Sept. 29, the flu and pain put him in the hospital.
Then Sept. 30 arrived.
"The hospital told me we had to check him for Ebola ... which was (that) day," she said.
Duncan would be diagnosed with Ebola four days later. He died four days after that, on Oct. 8.
"People just say Ebola was last year. Ebola was here, and Ebola has been forgotten," Troh said. "But Ebola ruined my life."
She lives in an apartment in Dallas with her extended family. She reads her Bible, which sits on the arm of a couch, daily. She credits her faith for getting her through those difficult times, and especially appreciates the help she received from her church.
Troh stays away from the spotlight – understandable, considering the media circus that enveloped her life last year. But she told us she wishes she could change the decision that changed everything in her life.
"I wish he did not come," she said of her fiance's decision to come to the U.S. "I wish he did not come."