Jeff Angelo is a man whose voice many central Iowans are certainly familiar with.
The host of "Need to Know with Jeff Angelo" on WHO Radio has talked about the coronavirus pandemic for months, trying to keep his audience informed and safe throughout 2020.
But between conversation starters and discussing the latest news, the former state lawmaker-turned-radio man is learning a new perspective about the virus.
"I think the best way to approach a lot of the topics I talk about is just from a very personal, human experience," Angelo said.
That includes COVID-19: Both of Angelo's parents were diagnosed and hospitalized within days of each other. Both were housed on the same floor.
Then came the call he was dreading.
"'Your dad's in bad shape'," Angelo recalled hearing, "'We gotta go.'"
He and his wife packed their car for St. Louis, just in time for his dad to ask to go into hospice care.
"He was in bad shape and he knew it," Angelo said.
Angelo and his sister got an opportunity few families have had: to say goodbye in person.
"The first thing my dad wanted to know was 'are you mad at me that I'm giving up? That I can't go on anymore?' We said 'no', and the relief [was] on his face."
The family shared a few moments of peace.
"I want you to know your mom was the love of my life, you kids were my biggest joy," Angelo's father told him. "Call my best friend and tell him I love him. I want you to know I've had a great life."
"There was smiling, there was laughing going on."
Angelo gets emotional in describing the nurse who called him, saying she wasn't going to leave his dad's side.
Their mom was in a rehab facility down the road, eventually telling her through a window that her husband of 56 years had died.
This has been an unimaginable few weeks for him, but it's given him a new perspective on his job.
He can tell people just how personal it gets.
"That softens the discussion so much," Angelo said. "It doesn't feel like a debate, it doesn't feel like judgment.
"It's just 'Here's what I know' and I hope that does impact people's view of what we're going through right now."
And even though the topic has become political, Angelo hopes he can change the way people approach it.
"Republicans have a certain way of viewing things and I understand that about individual responsibility and freedom," Angelo explained, "I totally get that being a Republican myself.
"But what I'm talking about is you're doing something for other people and everybody can unify around that concept."
Angelo said the weight of the pandemic is taking an extreme toll; not only on the families of those sick and alone but on the unsung heroes of this pandemic: the health care workers.
"They are not only treating the patients, they are comforting the patients because the families can't sit there with them. That's taking a huge physical and emotional toll on them that I think we are only beginning to understand."
Angelo said it's best to practice empathy because you never know how the pandemic is impacting those around us.
"[My dad] just lived this simple, honorable, wonderful life and so I try to honor him by living that life as well. I'm committed to my life and my family and I love to make people laugh and that was him."
"And that's what I'll do, and that's the way you honor his memory."