Updated April 20, 2020 21:09:16

Photo: Mr Krist died just after his 57th wedding anniversary. (Supplied)

Tasmania's north-west coast is known for its picture-perfect setting on the edge of Bass Strait.

The road winding from Ulverstone to Burnie is one of the more picturesque to take in while driving the sprawling coastline.

But for one couple, the choice to travel west, not east for medical help maybe have been a fateful one.

Willem "Bill" Krist succumbed to coronavirus earlier this month.

His widow, Adrienne Krist, has paid tribute to her late-husband, calling him her "soulmate".

Photo: Adrienne Krist spoke to the ABC at a safe distance outside her Ulverstone home where she is self-isolating. (ABC News)

Mr Krist went to the North-West Regional Hospital in Burnie for complications with his emphysema.

Mrs Krist believes he contracted the virus while in the hospital, which is the centre of a major COVID-19 outbreak.

He died at the age of 79 and just one day after their 57th wedding anniversary.

Mr Krist had suffered from emphysema for some time and required oxygen on and off throughout the day.

"He wasn't actually a well person, but he still had more in him," Mrs Krist told ABC Radio.

About a week before he died, he complained to his wife that "he wasn't doing too well" and they set off for a hospital.

Their hometown is in the middle of the north-west coast between the Burnie hospital, half an hour away to the west, and the Mersey Community Hospital at Latrobe, 20 minutes in the other direction.

"He was struggling for breath and he said, 'will you take me to the hospital?'"

"I said 'right or left' when we turned out the driveway. He said 'left', and we went to Burnie.

"It's a bit like a dice, you throw it up and you either win or you lose, and we turned the wrong way.

"It's a beautiful bit of road which is why he chose that way, it's a coastal road … you can look out to sea.

"It's a lovely drive along there, it's our favourite one."

Photo: Mr Krist was suffering from emphysema when he contracted COVID-19. (Supplied)

Despite the outcome, Mrs Krist is not blaming the hospital, where she believe he picked up the virus.

"I think this thing just might have been incubating in people and I think it's just one of those things that must be damn easy to catch," she said.

Photo: A family photo of Bill Krist and Adrienne Krist. Mrs Krist says she will miss his sense of humour. (Supplied)

Mrs Krist said her husband "looked like Barnacle Bill" with his long white hair down to his shoulders and grey beard.

"He wasn't a debonair type, he was scruffy and I loved him scruffy, you know, that's how he was," she said.

Mrs Krist said she would remember him for his sense of humour, which he maintained even when critically ill in hospital.

"He did silly things, even when he was in the hospital, he was still saying silly things, so he had a light-hearted side. He liked to joke around," she said.

Breaking down the latest news and research to understand how the world is living through an epidemic, this is the ABC's Coronacast podcast.

After spending days at her husband's bedside, Mrs Krist is now halfway through her enforced isolation period back at home in Ulverstone.

She is finding the isolation hard going, after her husband's death and growing up in "a huge household of people".

"Now there's nobody here and it's a very odd feeling."

She has thanked the local Salvation Army which "brought an absolutely wonderful lot of food" and the local council which has supplied things she had asked for, helping lift her spirits.

"I accept things that I cannot change and if things need to be changed that I can do something about then I'd do something about it."

"But this is something I cannot change. At all."

Topics: covid-19, diseases-and-disorders, health, human-interest, death, community-and-society, healthcare-facilities, tas, burnie-7320, hobart-7000, ulverstone-7315, launceston-7250

First posted April 20, 2020 20:02:59