Elizabeth Warren and her family are mourning the recent of loss of her brother.

The senator confirmed that Donald Reed Herring, her oldest brother, passed away due to complications from the coronavirus.

“My oldest brother, Don Reed, died from the coronavirus on Tuesday evening,” Warren wrote shortly after she found out.

My oldest brother, Don Reed, died from coronavirus on Tuesday evening. He joined the Air Force at 19 and spent his career in the military, including five and a half years off and on in combat in Vietnam. He was charming and funny, a natural leader. https://t.co/b8m0xKzAmM

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 23, 2020

Warren paid her brother a kind tribute with recognition of some of his warmest attributes. “What made him extra special,” Warren said, “was his smile—quick and crooked, it always seemed to generate its own light, one that lit up everyone around him.”

What made him extra special was his smile—quick and crooked, it always seemed to generate its own light, one that lit up everyone around him. pic.twitter.com/SFMOaBVCN3

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 23, 2020

Warren expressed gratitude to those who cared for her brother but also grief over how the pandemic made the passing process more difficult.

“I’m grateful to the nurses and frontline staff who took care of him,” Warren tweeted, “but it’s hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say ‘I love you’ one more time—and no funeral for those of us who loved him to hold each other close. I’ll miss you dearly my brother.”

Don flew 288 combat missions in Vietnam as a B-52 squadron pilot and a squadron aircraft commander. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1973. He died in Norman, Oklahoma.