Corina Houtman, 45, said her mother Marian and father Jan died five days apart in March 2021 after both were hospitalized with coronavirus. Marian died on 22 March; she also had advanced COPD, while Jan had lung and bladder cancer and died on 27 March. Houtman said the two had been the people who protected her throughout her life and that she is only now beginning to process their deaths.

She arranged for her parents to share a hospital room. Marian was eventually sedated and asked whether her daughter would be cared for before she died; Jan died five days later after a difficult final night. Houtman still associates her mother with Elvis Presley and her father with fishing, and said she continues to miss calling them and visiting places connected with them.