The coronavirus just hit too close to home for Elizabeth Warren. She announced Thursday that her oldest brother has died of the illness in Oklahoma. Don Reed Herring was 86, 16 years Warren’s senior, and he was diagnosed with COVID-19 about three weeks ago, reports the Boston Globe. “I’m grateful to the nurses and other front-line staff who took care of my brother, but it is hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say ‘I love you’ one more time,” she tells the newspaper. “And now there’s no funeral for those of us who loved him to hold each other close. I will miss my brother.”

Those familiar with Warren’s 2020 run for the White House might remember seeing Herring in an ad featuring all three of her older brothers, notes the Hill. Herring had a long, decorated career in the Air Force, with the Globe reporting that he flew more than 280 combat missions in Vietnam. Wrote Warren: “He was charming and funny, a natural leader.” (Warren, meanwhile, is open to being Joe Biden’s running mate.)