John Joseph Harlow Nassawadox, Virginia BIRTH: December 11, 1935 DEATH: May 16, 2020, age 84
J
ohn Joseph Harlow, who died May 16 from COVID19, lived a slice of Eastern Shore history known only in photographs and memories. A native of Wisconsin, he came to the Eastern Shore when he was assigned to the Cape Charles Air Force Station, which no longer exists. He worked at the Colonial Stores location in Cape Charles, later called Be-Lo, which is long gone. He was store manager at the Exmore Bayshore Market, which is closed. He was past president and an umpire for Cape Charles Little League, which no longer operates. He also was kind and giving in a way that is sometimes as rare as the Eastern Shore he experienced. “There wasn’t a negative bone in his body,” said his son, Cheriton resident John Harlow, a well-known artist and carver. “He had the greatest attitude. I hope that, before I’m dead, I’ll be the same way.” The elder Harlow loved his home state’s Green Bay Packers and enjoyed attending their football games in his youth. When Harlow moved to the Eastern Shore, he and friends dropped a Cadillac motor in a Ford car. That old “Ford-illac,” as his son called it, was Harlow’s pride. When he finished his military service, he had his hand in many community activities. He was a volunteer firefighter, rescue-squad member, served on the Cape Charles Planning
Commission, and was elected to its town council. He put others before himself. One day at church, a fellow parishioner choked on a piece of communion bread. Harlow, a trained emergency medical technician, jumped up and administered the Heimlich maneuver, saving his life in the middle of church. To have Harlow’s own life end the way it did was upsetting, his son said. Harlow had mobility issues after suffering a stroke, and was living at Heritage Hall in Nassawadox, which had an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Harlow contracted it. He died quickly. After about a week at the nursing home, he was transferred to Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital, where he succumbed to COVID-19 four days later. An active man who served his country and community during a full life was suddenly gone. At Heritage Hall, Harlow and his family look through a window at their sick father, and had a nurse position him so he could look back at them. “He was a tough old bird,” said Harlow. “It was just so heartbreaking. “Anyone who doesn’t think this stuff is serious is crazy. It’s like a wolf that goes after the weak. You need to be really careful.”
— Written by Ted Shockley