A police officer in North Carolina has died of suspected complications in his recovery from the coronavirus, just weeks before he was set to be married. Lt. Eric Dow, 50, was a 26-year veteran of the Fayetteville Police Department with plans to retire next year, according to The Fayetteville Observer. He was supposed to marry his fiancée, Kim Burns, on Oct. 19. On the first of the month, the day he was meant to be fitted for a wedding suit, Burns’ mother found Dow dead at his home. Burns said she didn’t know what had caused the lieutenant’s death, but that she suspected it was a blood clot related to COVID-19.

Dow, who was unvaccinated, had spent much of time in recent months working with Burns on a home they had bought in Myrtle Beach, where they planned to move after his retirement. He had been hospitalized for a number of days after contracting COVID, but was released roughly a week before his death. “He was just at such a place in life where he had his entire next chapter in his life laid out,” Dow’s younger brother told the Observer. “It’s like a bad movie. It’s awful.”