JOURNALIST PACO VERDAYES DIES OF COMPLICATIONS FROM COVID19

A passionate voice for oral tradition said goodbye last Wednesday morning, the friend, brother, family man, and renowned journalist, Francisco Verdayes Ortiz, closed his eyes forever, after suffering complications due to Covid-19.

It was his daughter Mariana Verdayes, who wrote an emotional message through the journalist’s Facebook account:

Before leaving he told me: “daughter, the dream of every journalist is to die reporting, if I could report everything, I would do it without thinking about it”. That’s how great his commitment to society was. 

A sudden goodbye

At the age of 55, Verdayes Ortiz tested positive on May 7, and perhaps without even imagining the outcome, he wrote a day later: “I was super excited about getting the vaccine”, the inoculation schedule for this city already gave the order for people in his age range to receive it.

Just a week ago he published an X-ray, where he revealed the advance of the virus in his lungs, the oxygen was already starting to be lacking, and he reported that he was under nebulization and taking medication. 

His last intention after accepting his illness and making it public knowledge, was to raise awareness among readers, in order not to lower our guard after the spike in cases in Quintana Roo as a result of Easter Week. Grateful with life, he said goodbye, saying “please take care of yourselves”.

The reactions and comments of hundreds of people have been felt; his loved ones, the guild, and the city of Cancún are in mourning. The unofficial narrator of this beautiful city will now live on through the stories he left behind in books, videos, magazines, newspapers and above all in the memory of the people of Cancún.