‘Mommy, we love you’: Mom dies outside doors of daughter’s high school graduation
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Gray News) - A mom in North Carolina died while walking into her daughter’s high school graduation.
On May 23, Jean Byrd was walking through the parking lot at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem to see her daughter, Meilean’s, high school graduation from Parkland High School.
However, she never made it inside and collapsed before making it to the door.
“As my sister was graduating high school, our mother is lying on the ground fighting for her life,” according to Byrd’s son Marquan (Don) Matthews on a GoFundMe.
He said that as his sister, Meilean, was walking across the stage, he was performing R on their mother. Byrd died an hour later, just 200 feet from making it inside the graduation, the fundraising page said.
After receiving her diploma, Meilean said a guidance counselor was waiting for her when she sat down, escorted her out and took her to the hospital, WXII reported.
“Mommy we love you,” Don said. “I’m lost without you, and I pray you give me the guidance you did once on this earth to make you proud.”
Byrd was originally from Philadelphia, and the family wants to bury her there.
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