Grateful for a 2nd chance. 84-year-old Tri-Cities COVID survivor shares message of hope

Rich Hirano was teaching skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho, last March when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

He’d already been planning to head back to the Tri-Cities when the resort was forced to close its doors.

But the 84-year-old wasn’t home more than a couple days when he knew something was wrong.

“I just didn’t feel as healthy as I was before,” said the former Hanford engineer.

By the fifth day back, he called his doctor who suggested he go to the hospital. There, Hirano was tested for COVID-19, but because he wasn’t showing the characteristic symptoms they sent him home.

His condition deteriorated and his son, Collin, called the hospital again. This time, Hirano was admitted for five days.

“They basically said, there’s nothing more we can do for you and they were getting pretty backlogged with additional coronavirus patients, so they sent me home,” he said.

He was scheduled to receive in-home nursing care, but it was three days before the first visit.

“It was frightening,” said his friend Pat Holten. “And it was just once a week, basically.”

She, along with other friends and neighbors, made sure Hirano was well cared for and that he didn’t stop fighting to recover.

“I was like, ‘Failure is not an option, it’s just not,’” she said. “You will get well, like it or not.”

The road to recovery wasn’t easy.

“I was so fatigued and my muscles ached so much that I could not get out of bed,” Hirano recalled. “I never felt this way in my life.”

But the support of his friends and family motivated him to keep going.

“People care about him and did everything they could to support him,” Holten said.

Internment camp

Hirano grew up in Washington state with his parents and twin brother, David.

When he was in first-grade, his family was forced to relocate to a remote and desolate internment camp along with thousands of other Japanese Americans during World War II.

His father’s work on the railroad meant his family didn’t see him for three years, and his dad died shortly after the family was released from the camp.

When Hirano reached middle school he discovered his passion for music and began playing the saxophone.

He bought his first instrument for $10 but could play it only after pouring hot water inside so the dried out pads could swell and actually produce sounds again.

He became a mechanical engineer and worked for Boeing until taking a job at Hanford. He and his late wife, Lilian, moved to the Tri-Cities, where they raised their sons Collin and Kyle.

It was just six years ago that he met Pat Holten, after hearing her perform on the keyboard at a Christmas dinner.

Eventually he convinced her that they should play music together and a partnership formed.

In recent years, their gigs have taken them across the Northwest.

“(Music) makes, universally, people happy and you can see that,” Holten said. “It’s a great thing to be able to go out there and make people happy. You feel powerful in a time when you can feel so powerless.”

Holten said she couldn’t imagine losing her music partner and friend, which is why she pushed him to get better even when he wanted to give up the fight.

Fight to live

“I really thought, ‘Is it worth this?’ ” Hirano recalled. “It’s easier to die than to try to get over this. I mean, I felt that I had never felt this bad in my life when I was at the height of my coronavirus. Everything ached and I was just miserable.”

At first, he was barely strong enough to get his saxophone out of the case. He slowly worked his way to playing for just 15 minutes. Now he plays for hours on end.

Being able to ski again is another motivator.

He was introduced to the sport when a friend’s neighbor took him to Snoqualmie Pass.

“Something just clicked,” Hirano said.

Now, he spends the winter months working as a ski instructor at the Sun Valley Resort. And he feels strong enough again to return this winter to teach.

However, the pandemic means classes will be smaller, social distancing enforced and masking required. And Hirano intends to be more serious about taking care of himself and his health.

Holten thinks that the combination of Hirano’s poor diet and intense exercise at the resort in the spring left him more susceptible to the virus.

Since being released from the hospital, Hirano partnered with a personal trainer to help guide him in nutrition and exercise to make sure he is in great shape for the ski season.

This new approach to life extends far beyond his physical well-being. Hirano says he is striving to be a better citizen and not getting so upset about trivial things.

“I have a second chance and for that I’m grateful,” he said.

This story was originally published November 26, 2020 at 5:00 AM.