Those we've lost to COVID-19: Robert Kanney of Vernon Hills

COVID-19 has taken the lives of more than 15,000 people in Illinois, including about 6,200 from the suburbs. We're sharing the stories of some of those we've lost.

Fully recovered from pneumonia and beaming for a photograph as he left a rehab center in Lincolnshire on March 24, Robert Kanney, 91, was thrilled to be returning to his Vernon Hills home, where he looked forward to gatherings with the loving families of his three daughters.

"I can't tell you how many dinners we've had at the house with my dad at the head of the table. He was a big kid himself," said daughter Anne Gulotta. Every Halloween, Kanney carved creative pumpkins. He loved to fly kites. He loved dogs. He loved his daughters, sons-in-law, five grandkids and one great-granddaughter.

Two days after he returned home, he learned someone with him in rehab had tested positive for COVID-19. On March 29, Kanney died alone at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, a victim of the coronavirus. The devout Catholic was buried next to his wife, Helen, who died in 1993, in a spartan graveside ceremony unimaginable before the advent of COVID-19.

"There's no goodbyes," Gulotta said. "It's a real empty feeling. He was robbed of the time he had left because of this virus."

- Burt Constable