No one should ever have to die alone!

My mother passed on May 31, 2020, two days before her 85th birthday. She died alone in a nursing home during the lockdown. She had tested positive for COVID-19 but was asymptomatic. My mother remained asymptomatic of COVID symptoms up to her death. She was denied her kidney dialysis due to testing positive for COVID-19. Dialysis was the only thing keeping her alive because she was in end-stage renal disease and not a candidate for a kidney transplant.

The nursing home facility insisted that she be put on hospice. (I remember because it showed up in my FB memories, and I cried all day). We (my siblings and I) were not allowed to see her except through her room window with FaceTime. They let us FaceTime, my mother, because the hospice social worker threatened to file a complaint with the state on our behalf. This form of communication was not much help because they lost her hearing aid, and she couldn’t hear us talking to her. After my mother’s death, we could not give the funeral service she had planned and paid for because of COVID-19 restrictions. We weren’t even able to see the body before they cremated her. My oldest child, who lives in an assisted living facility, was not allowed to come to the graveside service we had for her and say his goodbyes.

My mother was denied her life-saving dialysis cutting short her last days here on this Earth. COVID-19 restrictions stole a sense of closure from all of us. We were not able to be with her or say goodbye. No one should ever have to die alone. We are still struggling with the loss and senseless death of my beautiful mother. She did not die from COVID but a lack of medical care.