(EDITOR’S NOTE: Charlene Warner-Coleman is a prolific author with numerous friends in The Bahamas. See an extended “Editor’s Note” at the end of the introduction of this Richmond Free Press article in BAHAMAS CHRONICLE.)
By NICOLE M. CHRISTIAN
RICHMOND, Virginia, October 7, 2021 –He survived. This is the detail that Charlene Warner Coleman wants Richmond — and the world, really — to know about her husband, Ed Coleman, and his near-death battle with COVID-19 during the pandemic’s early stages in 2020 when the hope of a vaccine was moving into a national reality.
Nearly a year later, Mr. Coleman is not only among the living, he is the central figure in a new book, “Surviving COVID,” about his six-month ordeal as a patient on a special COVID-19 wing at the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center.
While Mr. Coleman currently is dependent on oxygen “24/7,” said his wife, he is still teaching Shotokan karate, a Japanese style of martial arts he began studying at age 14, as much as his health will allow.
“This is a survivor’s tale about a virus that’s a death threat. It’s uplifting in the end,” she said. “But people need to know just how bad it can get.”
The book is especially close to Mrs. Warner Coleman. She wrote and self-published the 110-page survivor’s tale as witness to what she labels a miracle.
“When the doctors looked at him,” she recalled, “they told me to get his papers ready. He had every precursor to die — 14 major operations, a stomach aneurysm, two brain aneurysms, a previous smoker, and he was 76.”
Yet while doctors were preparing her for the worst, Mrs. Warner Coleman turned her attention to prayer, faith, the healing power of music and the support of relatives with deep medical knowledge.
It was only by accident that Mr. Coleman, a disabled veteran who had served in the U.S. Army Special Forces as a paratrooper during the Vietnam era, even learned he’d contracted COVID- 19 in the early spring of 2020.
“When I got sick,” Mr. Coleman explained, “I didn’t believe I was sick.”
During a routine visit to the VA for treatment of ailing knees, he was asked to take a COVID-19 test. The test came back positive although he showed no immediate signs of the virus.
However, within days, a trio of symptoms emerged. (See link at the end of the Editor’s Note below for complete article in The Richmond Free Press.)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Charlene Warner-Coleman is Executive Producer of Tropical Beat Productions, Inc., based in Richmond, Virginia. She and her husband Edward “Ed” Coleman have many friends in The Bahamas and were among the out-of-town mourners who attended the state-recognized funeral for legendary Bahamian entertainer John “Chippie” Chipman, MBE, on Saturday, September 28, at St Agnes Anglican Church on Baillou Hill Road in Nassau on September 30, 2019.
Mrs. Coleman developed a close affinity with The Bahamas – and indeed, the Caribbean generally – beginning shortly after she graduated from historic Howard University in Washington, D.C., with a degree sociology and psychology in 1967.
I certainly hope that the new Progressive Liberal Party government in The Bahamas – particularly the Ministry of Tourism – would take note of this excellent article in The Richmond Free Press, which is one of the more than 200 Black-owned newspapers that are members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and recognize that the Black Press can be a very effective advertising conduit to help The Bahamas maintain its status as one of the world’s leading tourist destinations.
As a former News Editor of the award-winning Black-owned Washington Informer newspaper for more than 12 years before returning to my native Bahamas in 1996, I have been stressing the importance of The Bahamas recognizing that Black-owned newspapers have a dedicated and committed following that represents a lucrative market of potential visitors to The Bahamas. In the case of The Informer, for example, it is widely distributed in the District, Maryland and Virginia (DMV), where many highly paid corporate and Federal Government employees who can afford to travel reside.
In the case of The Richmond Free Press — a relatively new member of NNPA, whose inaugural edition hit the streets of Richmond on January 16, 1992 – it likewise has a great deal of influence in the Richmond area.
The Richmond Free Press was founded by the late Raymond H. Boone, a veteran newspaper reporter, editor and executive and a former associate professor at Howard University. He continued to serve as editor/publisher of the prize-winning newspaper until his death on June 3, 2014.
“Under his bold leadership, the black-owned Free Press changed the media landscape of Richmond, the former Capital of the Confederacy,” the newspaper notes in its ABOUT US background information. “In the best tradition of journalism, the Free Press honors and defends the First Amendment. It has successfully championed causes that promote equality with justice and opportunity for all people.”
The board of directors of Paradigm Communications, Inc., the corporate entity that publishes the Free Press, named Mr. Boone’s widow, Jean Patterson Boone, as publisher in late June 2014. For 22 years, Mrs. Boone worked alongside her husband, having the primary responsibility for generating advertising revenue.”
The Richmond Free Press adds: “At a time when most newspapers — dailies and weeklies — are experiencing a steady decline in readership, the Free Press circulation continues to grow, illustrating the newspaper’s relevance, credibility and value to people in the Richmond area. The Free Press has a readership of more than 135,000 with an audited Verified circulation of more than 35,000.”
As The Bahamas’ main economic lifeline, TOURISM, continues to rebound following the devastating impact of Hurricane Dorian on the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco in September of 2019 and the ongoing deleterious effects of COVID-19, BAHAMAS CHRONICLE certainly hope that newly sworn-in Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper, who is also Minister of Tourism and Investments, will recognize the importance of including the Black Press as a major aspect of The Bahamas’ tourism promotion campaign.
See complete article on Charlene Warner Coleman in The Richmond Free Press at http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2021/oct/07/surviving-covid-local-author-details-battle-her-hu/
