Wilson, a longtime aide to Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay, persuaded pastors to preach about the need to get shots. Her husband, Belle Glade Mayor Steve Wilson, was one of the first in the western farming community to roll up his sleeve, hoping others would follow his example.

But despite Wilson’s insistence that the shots would save lives, some members of her own family ignored her.

In the last three weeks, six of them died from complications of COVID-19.

“I was in their ears almost every day. ‘You’ve just got to do this,’ ” Wilson said Tuesday, reeling from the tragedy that has consumed her family. “I’m beating myself up. Should I have pushed harder?”