On the verge of recovery

Virgie Courville, an 83-year-old Church Point resident, has survived COVID-19 and a stroke while receiving care at Mercy Regional Medical Center in Ville Platte. She was admitted to the hospital in late June and stayed there two months, at one point hooked up to a ventilator. While recovering from the virus, she suffered a heart attack and then a stroke which affected the left side of her body. Still, she perseveres with the help and love of her family.
Virgie grew up in Lewisburg as the daughter of Richard Cary and Edna Darbonne Cary. She was the middle child of five brothers and a sister, which is the main reason she wanted to have a big family of her own. “And I don’t have one child too many,” she said of her six children.
When Virgie was working as a nurse at the Church Point Sanitarium, she and some other nurses would go to Courville’s Restaurant to get sodas. It was there she met Eric Courville, whose family owned the restaurant. Eric had just finished his service in the Army during the Korean War and had started working at the cannery in town. Virgie and Eric courted for 10 months before he popped the question. She was a nurse for two years but left the profession when she got married. November 21st will mark their 66th wedding anniversary.
She said the world today is very different from when she grew up, adding people do not take religion as seriously today as they did back then. “I’m not better than anybody else, but I’m very religious. Before COVID happened, I’d go to mass every day.” While the world has advanced so much since she was younger, Virgie believe today’s children have lost something along the way. “There’s no more values. Children don’t have the values we had. That’s part of all the trouble we have now. Not all the parents, but some of them just want to be friends with their children instead of raising them.” She said there should be more discipline. Virgie also said her family has had the biggest influence on her life, adding she lives for her children, Nelson, Ronald, Kevin, Chad, Michelle, and Debbie.
Virgie has been a big volunteer for much of her life, donating her time to different organizations and her church, Our Lady of Sacred Heart, when she had been helping to count donations since 1987. She also volunteered by making sweet dough pies and showing parents how to make them to raise money for Our Mother of Peace Catholic School. “I used to like to make sweet dough pies, but I can’t do that any more, but hopefully one day I can.” Her best-sellers were custard and chocolate sweet dough pies. “When I couldn’t make them anymore, I had quite a few customers meet me in town and ask me, ‘When are you going to make those pies?’” She said that was a good feeling to know how much they loved her pies.
For 26 years Virgie helped organize the Buggy Festival pageant, taking care of the girls, getting judges lined up, and a venue. Some of the proceeds of the festival would be donated to the Church Point hospital. She also volunteered for the Saddle Tramp Riders’ Club, which puts on the Church Point Mardi Gras. She sold tickets and registered the riders for several years. She also belonged to her local chapters of the American Legion Auxiliary and VFW Auxiliary.
Virgie used to be quite the seamstress, sewing for the public, even sewing men’s shirts which can be tricky, especially back in the day. “I used to love to sew, not so much anymore. With all the volunteering I would do during the day, sometimes I would have to sew at night to have the stuff on time for the people.”
She loves to read Christian fiction, especially about the Amish. The Church Point library puts books together for her and calls when they have some she would like. When it comes to jigsaw puzzles, she likes the ones with scenery and usually does the 500 piece puzzles.
When Virgie’s COVID condition worsened, she was brought to Mercy Regional in Ville Platte where her daughter-in-law Tammy works as a registered nurse. Dr. Brandon Fontenot and Nurse Practitioner Amy Fontenot were two of her caregivers. COVID-19 caused her to have a serious bout of pneumonia. She said having the virus was like nothing she had ever experienced before. “I’ve had the flu before, but nothing like this.”
After her two-month stay in the hospital, she did three weeks of therapy and now walks with the help of a walker. “My arm is still not good,” she said, adding that grabbing things is difficult, but she is making progress. Virgie’s husband, Eric, also had COVID and had to stay in the hospital, but his case was not as severe as hers. He uses a walker to get around, too.
Virgie praised the hospital, saying, “They’re wonderful over there. The nurses, the whole staff in every department were wonderful. I stayed so long it was like a family. I hated leaving them.”
She added, “If it wasn’t for Dr. Brandon, I wouldn’t be here today.”
When asked if people should take COVID-19 seriously, Virgie said, “It’s so serious. I keep saying ‘Wear the mask, wear the mask.’ This is a bad, bad thing. Some people had it and it wasn’t hardly nothing, but I had it bad.”
When asked how much the illness disrupted her daily life, Virgie said, “Very much. Before I had the virus, I was taking care of my 89-year-old husband and everything at the house. But now I need someone to take care of me.” She said her six children have stepped up to help, and so has Tammy and even the grandkids. “They’re all helping. They don’t leave us alone at all. They have a schedule and take their turns to come and stay with us.”
More than anything, Virgie is thankful to her loving family, the staff of Mercy Regional, and all the people who prayed for her. She said she is feeling fine, now, adding, “God is good.”