The family of a mum-of-five who died from coronavirus has revealed her heartbreaking final post on social media as she asked people to 'pray' she would wake up from an induced coma.
Karen Hobbs had been looking forward to spending the festive season with her family, but was admitted to hospital after contracting the virus just a week before Christmas in 2020, despite strictly following the government's guidance on social distancing.
Having kept friends and family updated through her Facebook profile, the 40-year-old mum shared one final message less than a week after being admitted to hospital explaining that she was about to be put into an induced coma.
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Her devastated family, who said they did not even get a phone call from the hospital informing them of her worsening condition, were unable to say goodbye.
Karen died just over two weeks later leaving behind her five children, Dylan, Niamh, Amelia, Sam and her youngest Olivia, who just four-years-old.
A year on, Karen's sister Rachel says the family is still coming to terms with her death, and that recent reports of alleged rule breaking in Downing Street are the 'ultimate insult', Wales Online reports.
Rachel said the last year "has been a bit of a blur", adding that the family miss Karen "so much".
"We're reminded of her and what happened to her every day," she said.
"We have coped well, but the thought of her is there when you wake up and it's still there when you go to sleep.
"We just didn't expect it at all - we really thought she was going to get better."
Rachel, from Pentwyn in Cardiff, said Karen "absolutely adored" her five children, who she had with her former partner Pete.
"They've coped really well in the circumstances," said Rachel. "She would be so proud of them. The eldest ones understand what happened, and the youngest, she knows that Mummy is in heaven now."
Karen, a former air stewardess for EasyJet, had stuck to lockdown rules rigidly, Rachel said, adding that she rarely ventured outside of her home when the pandemic first started.
"She wouldn't go out anywhere - she might go to the school and back but other than that, she would be back at the house," she said.
Rachel said they would chat through the window, and even when they were allowed in each others gardens they would keep their distance.
Karen's determination to stick to the rules meant the family were even more shocked when she eventually contracted coronavirus in the week leading up to Christmas.
Her flu-like symptoms started to worsen and Karen spent Christmas Day in bed as she waited for the results of a PCR test.
The day after Boxing Day, Karen, who was struggling to breathe, was admitted to hospital as she coughed and gasped for air, which Rachel said was probably "the worst thing I've ever witnessed".
Karen was discharged that night, but, after just a couple of hours back at her home, her family had to call for an ambulance again.
Having been rushed to the University Hospital of Wales, Karen was placed in intensive care with a soaring temperature.
She was also placed on a CPAP machine, which could not stop her problem breathing.
Karen kept in contact with her anxious family, who were unable to visit due to coronavirus regulations, by phone and updated her friends on her condition on social media.
Her updates gave a haunting insight into life on a Covid intensive care unit, with one detailing how a woman she shared a ward with had died in front her.
"The lady in the bed opposite me has just died in front of me," she wrote.
"Poor, poor lady, the nurses worked so hard to get her back but she couldn't be helped. Let that serve as a warning to anyone who still thinks it's okay to break the rules."
On New Year's Eve, Karen described how she was "struggling to reply" to people's well wishes, adding: "I can't manage to keep sitting and texting."
But, while Rachel, Pete and the children knew that she was growing too tired to message them, it wasn't until a devastating update less than a week into her hospital stay that they realised just how serious her condition was.
Her worrying update, which turned out to be her last, read: "Being placed into an [induced] coma and warned that I might not make it. Please everyone pray for me that I wake from this and come home to my kids. Terrified is not the word!"
The news stunned the family, who said there was no word from the hospital updating them on the decision.
Rachel, Pete and Karen's five children had been unable to say anything to her before she was induced.
On January 12, the family were called into the hospital, where a consultant gave them some heartbreaking news.
"He told us that she was very ill," Rachel explained.
"She had multiple organ failure, everything was slowly shutting down. He said that the doctors thought she was going to die, and that we would have to prepare for the worst."
Rachel said the family had been allowed to visit while Karen was in the coma, but did not say goodbye.
"I didn't really think that it would be the last time we saw her," she said.
"Before that, the doctors had said she could die, but even then, we thought she was going to be alright, even if it was going to take a long time for her to get better."
On the evening of January 19, Rachel got the call she had been dreading, telling her that her sister had passed away after going into cardiac arrest.
Karen's family were unable to see her one final time, while lockdown restrictions were to deal another heartbreaking blow to the family, who had to limit the number of mourners attending her funeral.
Karen's family are now adjusting to life without her - but have recently been served a bitter pill to swallow.
Allegations of parties taking place in Downing Street have dominated headlines in recent weeks, with Boris Johnson and top politicians accused of breaking the very rules that they set - the same rules that prevented families, such as Karen's, from being with their loved ones as they passed away.
Rachel knows just how her sister would react were she still alive today.
"She'd go absolutely mad," she said. "She had quite a lot to say about them at the best of times, but this - oh, she would have hated this. She followed the rules so closely, and yet the people who are setting them think they can just break them and get away with it.
"It's incredibly difficult to accept, and it makes me so angry. Knowing that I never got to say goodbye to my sister and she never got to say goodbye to the children that she loved so much, all the while these rules were being ignored in Downing Street, it's heartbreaking.
"It's really rubbing salt into the wound, and it just makes you think how unfair this all is. It's the ultimate insult."
Rachel is keen, however, not to let the injustice of the situation tarnish the family's memories of Karen, who she said was "absolutely adored" by her children.
"She said it as it was, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind," she laughed. "Karen wasn't quiet, but she was reserved - she used to say to me that she couldn't really stand people! But she was very kind and caring.
"She was a brilliant mum and incredibly devoted. She would do so much with them - drawing, colouring, reading them books, she was very hands on.
"Even if she was struggling with something, she wouldn't want to bother people with it - she would want to do things herself and was very independent in that way.
"More than anything, she loved her children, and they loved her so much too. They miss her a lot, and we do talk about her now. I've got some recordings of her voice and I play it for them sometimes, to make them laugh and smile.
"It's still really hard knowing that she's gone, but I want them to remember her, and all the good memories that they have."
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