Lifelong Dodgers fan celebrates one last time before COVID-19 throws a lethal strike

Kim Taylor holds a photograph of her 83-year-old mother, Joanna Atkinson, in American Fork on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020. Atkinson died on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020, of COVID-19. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Joanna Atkinson, 83, among pandemic’s toll that has now topped 1,000 in Utah

AMERICAN FORK — You won’t find a bigger fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Joanna Atkinson tuned in for every pitch of every game dating back to the days the team called Brooklyn home. Her daughter, Kim Taylor, vows to fight anyone who thinks they’re a bigger fan. The Dodgers — finally — gave her mother everything she ever wanted this year with their first World Series title since 1988.

Dressed in a Dodger blue sweatshirt, Atkinson was on her feet in her son’s Provo living room as Dodger reliever Julio Urias struck out the Tampa Bay Rays’ Willy Adames to clinch the championship. She applauded with a big smile on her face as her family whooped and hollered around her. She posed in her Sandy Koufax jersey next to the big screen TV pointing to an elated Clayton Kershaw running to celebrate with his teammates.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

A photo of Joanna Atkinson and her Dodgers jersey are pictured on the couch of her daughter’s home in American Fork on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020. Atkinson died on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020, of COVID-19.

Little did Atkinson or her family know on that glorious October night that less than three weeks later she would be with the Big Dodger in the Sky as retired manager Tommy Lasorda is wont to call God.

Atkinson died Nov. 15 at Utah Valley Hospital, another victim of COVID-19.

At least she wasn’t completely alone, though the opening lines of her obituary reflect an all too familiar scene in this pandemic-stricken year.

“The final labored breaths of her extraordinary 83 years were spent soaking in the love of her family — both virtually and in person. She smiled sweetly as she lovingly embraced the hands of two of her four children while the rest of the family shared peaceful affirmations of love through the miracle of technology.”

Kim Taylor

Joanna Atkinson wears a Los Angeles Dodgers jacket shortly before her death from COVID-19 in November.

Taylor, of American Fork, has no idea how her mother — who hadn’t spent the night in a hospital since the birth of her youngest son 45 years ago — contracted the deadly virus that as of Thursday has now claimed 1,016 Utahns, more than half of those in the past two months.

She remembers the state reporting 687 COVID-19 deaths a few days before her mother died. The number stuck in her head.

“I remember thinking to myself she’s going to be 688,” Taylor said. “I can’t believe we’re one of the statistics that we read about in the news.”

A day after “my friend, my idol, my everything I ever hope to be” died, a heartbroken Taylor saw the cold reality in the state health department’s daily list of coronavirus deaths: Female, between 65-84, Utah County resident, hospitalized at time of death.

Taylor said the family was careful around Atkinson. They didn’t have large family gatherings. The teenage and young adult grandchildren kept their distance. No one else in the family had the virus. She doesn’t think there’s more that they could have done.

“We don’t know how she got it,” she said. “I’m super grateful that we don’t know because I feel like either one of us asymptomatically brought it to her or she got it at the doctor’s office.”

Atkinson had been to the doctor’s office a few times earlier but nowhere else, Taylor said.

Taylor and her brother drove Atkinson, who had recently been placed on oxygen, to the Provo hospital’s emergency room on Nov. 3 with some breathing problems. But nurses told them they couldn’t put her on a BiPap machine before testing her for the coronavirus. Taylor was incredulous. She told them there was no way her mother had COVID-19. The test came back positive, and Atkinson was admitted to the Intensive care unit.

The family’s only contact with Atkinson from then on was restricted to the telephone or FaceTime. Some of the conversations went well. She knew where she was and why she was in the hospital. Others didn’t go so well. She repeatedly called her daughter scared and confused. She believed she was living in a hotel room or thought she had been kidnapped.

That’s how it went for more than a week.

On Nov. 15, a Sunday, Taylor received a call from a doctor at 5:30 a.m. telling her to get to the hospital as soon as possible. The medical staff would allow her and her brother — at their own risk — in the room with their mother as she slipped away.

Donning masks, face shields, gowns and gloves, they spent the next 45 minutes holding their mother’s hand and talking. She didn’t want to let go. She showed off her fingernails, still painted with Halloween spiders and cobwebs.

Atkinson got into the spirit of every holiday or special event. She had shoes, earrings and purses to match any occasion. One time, her son-in-law, Alan, asked her what she planned to wear for Arbor Day. She dressed in the team colors for her granddaughter’s soccer games or her grandson’s baseball games. She wore BYU blue on game days.

And, of course, Dodger blue whenever her team was playing.

Her family took her to spring training last year in Arizona where Lasorda signed a baseball for her. Her son took her to Dodger Stadium on the night the team honored Vin Scully, the longtime Dodger broadcaster who was retiring. Atkinson was the last one to leave the stadium after seeing Cody Bellinger’s home run in the 10th inning give the Dodgers an improbable fifth walk-off win in a row in 2019.

Taylor recalled coming home from a date one night to find her parents sitting in bed, her dad holding a transistor radio in the air so her mother could listen to a Dodger game. It was the only place he could get a signal.

Kim Taylor

Joanna Atkinson wears a Sandy Koufax jersey while celebrating the Los Angeles Dodgers world championship in October.

While Atkinson adored the Dodgers, the real love of her life was her husband of 45 years, and their four children and 12 grandchildren. Atkinson went by many names — Jo, Mom, Grandma, Mucka, Gaga, GG, but she was always Babe to John Atkinson, who died in 2007.

They met at a dance at BYU and married in the Los Angeles California Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days Saints. Atkinson taught elementary school and her husband built houses. They lived in California where their first three children were born. They had season tickets to the Dodgers. They ultimately settled in Utah.

A real-life Mary Poppins, Atkinson had everything anyone needed in her purse from lip balm to nail clippers to a pen and paper, and always gum. Alan Taylor liked to name random items just to see if they were in her bag. She once pulled out a tape measure and a small salt-and-pepper shaker.

Taylor said the best thing about her mom was that she made everyone feel like they were her favorite, that they were important. She was everyone’s second mom.

From Atkinson’s obituary:

“Every good thing we have done in life is because of the love and nurturing of our mom and dad. Period. It’s a known fact that heaven just got a lot cooler.”

And a lot Bluer.

Kim Taylor

Joanna Atkinson wears Los Angeles Dodgers gear shortly before her death from COVID-19 in November.

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