A mother suddenly fell and passed away in a parking lot just moments before her daughter’s high school graduation in North Carolina.
On May 23, Jean Byrd was at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C., getting ready for her daughter Meilean’s graduation when she died “only 200 feet” away from the ceremony, as her family shared in a GoFundMe campaign description and told local NBC affiliate WXII.
Marquan Matthews — Byrd’s son, who was inside the venue at that time — remembered receiving a phone call from his aunt about what happened, before a security guard took him in a golf cart to the parking lot, WXII reported. He then did CPR until the paramedics got there.
Byrd passed away from cardiac arrest, according to the GoFundMe description written by her son.
“This was a curse,” Matthews told WXII. “This was a curse because I sat there and watched my mom’s soul lift out of her. I watched her take her last breath.”
“So it was very hard for me, and it’s still hard for me to this day because I barely get any sleep,” he continued. “I just see those last few moments of my mom, just being gone.”
Meilean walked across the stage and got her diploma from Parkland High School, but she had no clue what was going on at that moment, according to WXII.
A guidance counselor was there for her and said that her mom “had an accident,” and then Meilean was taken out and brought to the hospital, she shared with the outlet.
“I thought it was just a car accident, so I wasn’t really scared,” Meilean said, crying as her family comforted her.
Three days before Meilean’s high school graduation and Byrd’s passing, her youngest son, Marsuan, went to his eighth-grade graduation ceremony.
Matthews mentioned on the GoFundMe page that his mom “had the honor of seeing him” walk across the stage during the event.
He started the family’s fundraising campaign to “make sure she gets her last wishes” of being buried next to her father and other family members in Pennsylvania.
As the son expressed, his mother — known as “Ma Dukes” — “shared a lot of infectious love over the years, touching the souls of the lost and being a saint to many who needed it.”
“We never imagined that on this day, which was supposed to be joyful, would turn out to be the worst day of our lives,” Matthews added. “While my sister was graduating high school, our mother was lying on the ground fighting for her life. As my sister walked across the stage, I was doing CPR on my mom. She passed away an hour later on my sister’s graduation day.”
Byrd, who was a “fighter,” as her son described her, had “a constant battle with heart issues” and had previously experienced “two heart attacks.”
“She was incredibly strong and a true warrior, always fighting for her kids no matter how much pain she was in,” Matthews wrote. “Regardless of what our mother faced, she always remained positive and found a way. Even when my mom was in pain, she still made people smile and feel welcomed in their hearts with everyone she met.”
“Many lives were positively influenced by our mother’s love and strength, and we invite you to help give my mom the celebration she always wanted and truly deserves. Mommy, we love you, I feel lost without you, and I pray you guide me like you did when you were here to make you proud. Rest In Paradise, my beautiful lady,” he finished the note that was signed by family.
Funeral services for Byrd are scheduled for June 14, according to the GoFundMe.
