BOONE COUNTY, Ky. — A Northern Kentucky grandfather finally came home after 159 days of fighting COVID-19.

Gregory Rupp, a former Marine, first tested positive for coronavirus in March.

“It feels great to be home. I was sometimes wondering if I was going to get home,” said Gregory. 

Rupp spent each night by himself in an ICU hospital bed, a nursing home, or rehab bed. From March to September, he was away from home.

“When he left, I put in his pocket three things: a phone, a charger, and his insurance card, and off he went in the ambulance on March 29, and he returned September 4,” said Carol Rupp, his wife.

Carol said the coronavirus has caused the couple to be apart for the first time in their 50-year marriage. 

When Gregory left for the hospital, the family said he tested positive for the coronavirus. He started experiencing an array of other medical conditions, along with his already ongoing battle with COPD.

“It was a one day at a time effort for the doctors and the staff,” Carol said.

But he wasn’t the only one. The entire family of seven was fighting the coronavirus from the youngest baby to the teenagers and the adults. They all recovered in early April, except Gregory.

Eventually, he tested negative, then positive, then negative again, and the cycle continued for several months until early August when he was cleared to go to rehab and then finally home.

“The only problem was we didn’t have the financial resources or any of the equipment at all to our names except for a walker,” said Rachel Haley, Gregory’s daughter. 

Haley reached out to neighborhood groups for help, and another family member created a GoFundMe page.

They turned their dining room into a small room, making it easy for Gregory to move around.

“We know someone who’s in the ICU for two months, it was over a million [dollars], and so I’m not sure after three and a half months in the ICU what that’s going to look like, what that would look like,” Haley said.

For now, they're taking it one day at a time, and the family is grateful to have their grandfather back in bed in their home.