Longtime Stamford Resident Chronicles Final Days With Virus

STRATFORD, CT — Earla Dawn Dimitriadis faced death from the coronavirus with the same strength and courage she brought to her 66 years of life.

“I’m losing the battle with COVID,” Dimitriadis wrote in a Facebook post Dec. 3. “It is now just a matter of trying to keep me comfortable 'til I pass. I’m ready to go and not be in pain anymore. … This will probably be my last post. Be kind to each other. I love you.”

Two days later, Dimitriadis, a longtime Stamford resident who moved to Stratford about 10 years ago, died at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport.

“My mom didn’t have time for pain,” said Dimitriadis’s daughter, Jennifer Ritz Sullivan, who lives in Massachusetts. “She always saw the beauty in things.”

Indeed, while hospitalized Dec. 1, Dimitriadis posted on Facebook about how as a child she would flip through the Sears catalog and circle her wishes.

“Wishes are good,” she wrote. “So during my time here in the hospital (I am) putting together a wish list of things I love, and make me smile. It helps to get me through these days in isolation ICU and focus on beauty instead of all these machines and monitors.”

In another post Dec. 1, Dimitriadis included a selfie from her hospital bed, with an oxygen tube attached to her nose.

“Unfortunately they are unable to keep my levels up,” she wrote. “There was damage done to my lungs and pneumonia set in.”

Sullivan said her mother knew how to communicate a message on social media, a skill she honed through jobs selling jewelry and nail care equipment.

“She was always good with social media, but especially at the end that’s all she had,” Sullivan said. “She just wanted to connect with the people in her life and that was the only way she could do it.”

Dimitriadis and her husband, Nick Dimitriadis, became ill with the virus in late November, around the same time that Nick’s mother, Marie Dimitriadis, died of COVID-19. Nick was released from the hospital with oxygen after a few days, but Earla, who had no chronic health problems before contracting the coronavirus, remained seriously ill. When the time came, she chose not to go on a ventilator.

“It’s almost like people get this Stage 4 cancer diagnosis overnight,” said Sullivan’s husband, Corcoran Sullivan. “I’ve never seen something like that.”

Five people were able to attend Earla’s funeral in person.

“This family shouldn’t be grieving the loss of a 66-year-old woman,” Jennifer said. “My mom overcame so much in her life and was beyond this incredible person who broke the barriers of her family. … She should still be here.”

Earla grew up poor in rural New York state amid circumstances that forced her to leave school at age 13. She went on to get her GED, attend community college, and, eventually, earn a bachelor’s degree and, in 2012, a master’s degree. Earla was the first person in her family to go to college.

“That degree was for her and nobody else,” Jennifer said. “She broke the cycle.”

Earla always worked multiple jobs, but for over 25 years she built a career at ROSCCO, a nonprofit that provides enrichment programming for Stamford Public Schools. She eventually worked her way up to operations manager.

“She didn’t let things slow her down,” Jennifer said.

Earla was an artist, mostly self-taught, who enjoyed woodworking and jewelry making. She wrote a play that was performed at the Stamford Palace Theater. Her children’s Halloween costumes were homemade. She loved music and animals. At her funeral, a slideshow of photos from her life — including images of her beloved pets — was accompanied by her favorite song, “My Thanksgiving,” by Don Henley.

Her final Facebook post was a link to a video of country singer Alan Jackson performing the Christian hymn “How Great Thou Art.”

“What a gift to be at peace when you go, and my mom had that,” Jennifer said. “My mom died knowing she was surrounded by love.”

In addition to Nick, Jennifer and Corcoran, Earla is survived by her son, Edward Mulford, and daughter Amanda Ritz; three stepchildren, Christine Nunn and her husband, Patrick, Stacy Kopald and her husband, Kevin, and Susan Fekete and her husband, Steven; and six grandchildren, Jaron Mulford, Kayla Mulford, Lucas Nunn, Logan Kopald, and Emma and Julia Fekete, according to her obituary.

In lieu of flowers, Earla's family is requesting donations be made in her memory to No Kid Hungry and the Mental Health Association in Orange County, Inc.