In April, Jenny Diaco discovered how life can turn in a tragic instant.
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The Cobram resident lost her husband and prominent businessman, Angelo, to the influenza A and now she wants people to show extra vigilance regarding the virus.
Mrs Diaco said her husband, Angelo, 59, was a well-known and respected figure in the community, having founded a successful orchard business with his brother Frank.
On a Tuesday, April 9, Mr Diaco went to bed with joint pain and said he may have been getting the flu.
The next morning, Mrs Diaco thought her husband's breathing was not right and she took him to Cobram hospital.
From there, he went to Shepparton hospital to undergo a chest x-ray. He was put on an oxygen machine, all the while trying to reassure Mrs Diaco he was okay.
Within a few hours, he took a turn for the worst and was intubated and taken to the intensive care unit. He was then moved by road ambulance to The Alfred hospital in Melbourne.
On April 13, just three days after he went to Cobram hospital, Mr Diaco lost his battle to influenza A.
Mrs Diaco hoped if anything positive could come out of this, it was for people to be proactive and get a flu vaccination.
Mr Diaco was a car enthusiast and his death put a passion project on pause.
The project was to restore a Ford Fairmont 1976 XB series, to be put on display at the Cobram Swap Meet and All Wheels Show in August.
The vehicle was being worked on by Paul Catling and his team at Cobram Auto Body.
“When Angelo passed away, I went into to see Paul in the shop,” Mrs Diaco said.
“We discussed how he wanted to get it in the show and from there they worked around the clock to get it ready.”
Mr Catling said the car needed a complete makeover to get up to scratch for the swap meet, recalling how Mr Diaco's enthusiasm for the assignment had drown each time he went into the shop.
“He brought the car in because it had accidentally been backed into and he wanted to get it repaired,” he said.
“Each time he came in to check on it, he kept saying ‘you may as well do this and you may as well do that’ and it soon became a full restoration - inside and out.
“The repair we had to do on the quarter panel was enormous, we should have replaced it but because of the age and style of the car it couldn't be (replaced), so that was a major challenge in itself.
“The car was stripped to bare metal, we repaired some rust and painted it to the quality it is now.
“He changed his mind a couple of times regarding the colour, but he ended up wanting to go back to orange - the original factory colour.”
Work on the car stopped when Mr Diaco died, but after Mrs Diaco reiterated her husband's wishes, Mr Catling and his team got straight back to work.
“We were three quarters of the way through (the restoration) when he passed away,'' he said.
“We stopped working on it for a few weeks until we spoke to Jenny and she said lets keep going and get it finished for the show because that is what he wanted.
“We had about two weeks to finish it off, so we got stuck back into it.
“It was a bit emotional really because every time you looked at it or worked on it you would think about Angelo, so it was a bit different in that sense.
“We (Paul and Angelo) were on the same wavelength with what the car would look like which was a good thing because I was able to finish it to what he would have wanted and achieve his final goal for the car.”
Mr Catling said he felt a sense of pride in putting Mr Diaco's car on display at the show and said it was an honour to complete to project for him.
“Because Angelo was so well known, lots of people knew about the car and there were people coming up and taking photos all day,” he said.
“It attracted a lot of attention, it stands out because of the colour and we had plenty of great comments all day.
“I want to say that myself and the staff were extremely proud to build the car of Angelo, it has been a pleasure to finish it off for Jenny.”
Mrs Diaco has put the car in pride of place in Mr Diaco’s garage.