It can be difficult to smile when the heart of your home is missing.
Sgt. Mike Jone with the West Police Department has been out of work for nearly a month, choosing to spend his time by his wife's bedside.
"It's weird going to the house and not walking in and seeing her," Jones said. "My anxiety has been a little high."
Jones said his wife, Shanna Jones, fell ill on Feb. 10 due to the flu. She's been fighting for her life in the ICU ever since.
"Saturday morning, she woke up saying she could hardly breathe," Jones said. "I took her to Hillsboro emergency room and that's when they ended up care flighting her to Denton because that was the closest bed. They said they couldn't handle her because she was too sick."
Jones and his stepdaughter, Shelbey Guerrero, have spent every day with Shanna since she was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
"We don't come back but every three or four days," Jones said. "We'll come back long enough to do our thing and go back."
"She thought she just had a common cold, but it turned into double pneumonia, Type A flu, sepsis, just everything," Guerrero said.
Shanna has always been there for her two children, but now she's relying on them.
"I need to be there to help her get better," Guerrero said. "Hold her hand, pray for her, tell her to keep fighting, give her a reason to fight."
For a while, it seemed as though Shanna wouldn't pull through as her loved ones watched her lying motionless in her hospital bed.
"Down her throat, in her nose, in her neck, IVS everywhere," Guerrero said. "That's just horrible to see and hearing all the beeps and all the monitors, it's enough to put you in depression."
But over the last few days, Shanna's family has been given a glimmer of hope as she starts to show signs of improvement. She's now awake, talking and had her breathing tube removed.
"It's horrible, it really is," Jones said. "But we're doing good and we're moving in the right direction now."
Jones said Shanna is now on the road to recovery and one step closer to coming home.
"I told her she's got two weeks worth of talking to get out," Jones said. "She smiled at that."
Jones added that Shanna is expected to be at the hospital for another month as she goes through physical therapy.
The family is asking for donations to help cover medical costs. Jones said the care flight bill alone is over $4,000.
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