A couple in Florida who spent many years serving as missionaries and ministers recently died 15 minutes apart of the coronavirus.
Bill and Esther Ilnisky were married nearly 67 years when they passed away at a Palm Beach County hospice, the Associated Press (AP) reported Sunday.
The couple’s only child, Sarah Milewski, whose father was 88 and her mother 92, told NBC Miami the circumstances may have been a hidden blessing although it was a devastating loss.
“It is so precious, so wonderful, such a heartwarming feeling to know they went together,” Milewski commented, adding, “I miss them.”
The NBC report continued:
Bill Ilnisky grew up in Detroit, deciding at 16 to devote his life to God, Milewski said. He headed to Central Bible College, an Assemblies of God school in Springfield, Missouri. He preached at nearby churches and needed a piano player. Friends suggested Esther Shabaz, a fellow student from Gary, Indiana. They fell in love.
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After graduation and their wedding, Bill Ilnisky opened churches in the Midwest. In the late-1950s, the Ilniskys took congregants to Jamaica for a mission, fell in love with the island, and stayed on to run a church in Montego Bay for a decade.
At that time, the couple adopted Milewski, then a two-year-old, from a foster home in Miami.
“In 1969, the family moved from Jamaica to Lebanon, where Bill Ilnisky ministered to college students and taught. His wife started an outreach center and had a Christian rock band,” the outlet said.
When civil war erupted in 1975 and bombs exploded outside their Beirut apartment building, they eventually left in 1976 as United States Marines evacuated Americans and got on the last plane out of the area.
Upon their return to America, Bill became a pastor in West Palm Beach and his wife started a program teaching kids how to pray.
“Bill Ilnisky retired three years ago and while physically healthy for a late octogenarian, had some dementia. His wife still ran her prayer network and did Zoom calls,” the NBC report said.
The couple took precautions when the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020 and Milewski said her mom stayed at home but Bill occasionally left the house.
“He couldn’t take it,” she recalled. “He needed to be around people.”
Milewski and her husband visited her parents on her mother’s birthday and a few days later, her mother became ill. It was not long before the couple was diagnosed with the virus and was hospitalized.
When their illness got worse, it was decided on February 27 the couple would be placed in hospice care and Jacqueline Lopez-Devine, chief clinical officer at Trustbridge hospice, said there was no question about putting them in a room together.
Milewski bid her parents goodbye through a window, and her father lay on the right side of the bed while her mom faced him. He nodded as Milewski spoke to him and her mother tried to talk but could not.
“It was horrible,” Milewski recalled.
Esther passed away at 10:15 a.m. on March 1, and her husband died 15 minutes later.
“They were always, always together,” Milewski stated, adding, “So in sync.”
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