“Tonight, I lost my super power. I’m broken.”

With those words on Friday night, KFDI morning show host JJ Hayes shared with all of us news of the death of his wife, Michelle Horne.

Horne, 50, died following a battle with COVID-19.

She had been home from the hospital for nine days and appeared to be improving before she stopped breathing at home Friday evening.

Horne tested positive for the coronavirus on Labor Day weekend before she was scheduled to be discharged from the hospital following surgery.

Instead of going home, Horne stayed in the hospital.

She improved enough to be released at the end of September.

Before Horne went on a ventilator, Hayes shared a letter she wrote on his Facebook page.
It read: “For the COVID deniers out there in our friend group let me tell you this. It. Is. Real. I wish you could’ve spent the afternoon with me listening to the person next door whose call light was constantly going off as she was coughing and crying and moaning. It was heartbreaking. I feel as if I was listening to her die. And for those of you who feel the need to fight the ‘but they didn’t die of COVID they died of something else.’ If I should die in this battle. Even though I have type 2 diabetes, a kidney transplant, CKD. Make no question that I died of COVID-19. Because none of those things brought me to the hospital.”

Hayes says his wife was his superpower because whenever he was out at a radio station event or emceeing the numerous charity events, she “gave me the strength and the mental calmness and the ability to do my very best when I needed to.”

On Sunday Hayes updated his followers on Facebook.

Hayes plans to have a Celebration of Life later this month at the couple’s church, College Hill United Methodist Church.