Audio By Carbonatix
Michelle Bennett didn't think she'd be able to say goodbye to her mother before she died.
Like a lot of families across the country right now, Bennett was told she couldn't be in the same vicinity as her 75-year-old mother, Carolann Christine Gann, who had contracted coronavirus and was nearing the end of her life.
"Not being able to be there and hold my mom's hand, rub her head, tell her the things I wanted to say her. It was such a helpless feeling, I can just remember the days leading up feeling so frustrated and helpless and not being able to talk to her because she was not conscious during that time," Bennett told CNN Monday.
But a nurse at Swedish Issaquah hospital in Washington took it upon herself to make sure Bennett got to say her goodbyes. Bennett told CNN the nurse called her from her personal cell phone and said her mother's breathing was changing and she probably wouldn't live much longer.
"I'm going to put the phone up to her face so you can tell her you love her and say your goodbyes," Bennett says the nurse told her. "She will not be alone, we will stay with her till the end."
Ten minutes later, Bennett says she was speaking to her ailing mother over FaceTime.
"I love you very much," Bennett told her mother, adding the two had discussed recently the trials every mother-daughter relationship goes through and that she never got to tell her mother she forgave her.
"I forgive you, mom, I love you. I know I didn't get a chance to say it," Bennett said.
She admitted it was tough expressing her feelings when she wasn't actually there, but she hopes her mother heard her last words.
"Mom, it's OK to pass on. It's OK to go now."
Within an hour, Bennett said she was gone.
Bennet said she saw the nurse was crying as she took the phone away.
"I know how difficult this is for them," she said. "I can't imagine being on the front lines of that and having to go home everyday and risk infection themselves, but then have the compassion and the empathy to be right there in that moment as if it was their own mother. That was one of the most amazing things I've experienced."
Latest Stories
-
Woman found dead at Dzodze
20 minutes -
Nana Aba Anamoah rates Mahama’s performance
47 minutes -
Ghana selects Bryant University as World Cup base camp
2 hours -
Nana Aba Anamoah names Doreen Andoh and Kwasi Twum as her dream interviewees
2 hours -
Religious Affairs Minister urges Christians to embrace charity and humility as Lent begins
3 hours -
Religious Affairs Minister calls for unity as Ramadan begins
3 hours -
Willie Colón, trombonist who pioneered salsa music, dies aged 75
4 hours -
Ga Mantse discharged from UGMC following Oti Region accident
4 hours -
Guardiola tells team to chill with cocktails as Man City pile pressure on Arsenal
5 hours -
Majority blasts Minority over Burkinabe border bloodbath claims
6 hours -
Analyst says Burkina Faso killings were a calculated signal to Ghana
7 hours -
Veep extends Ramadan greetings, donates to Cape Coast Central Mosque
7 hours -
Watch the moment President Mahama visited the Ga Mantse at UGMC after horrific accident
7 hours -
UBIDS secures $6.6m prefabricated classroom complex to end space deficit
9 hours -
Gold Fields Ghana Foundation deepens childhood cancer awareness drive; invests $4.8m in community health
9 hours
