JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Days before the new year, Cheryl Bacon, 52, took her final breath at UF Health Jacksonville after losing her battle with COVID-19.
“She honestly was the greatest mother on Earth. I think that’s what we will always remember her for,” said her daughter, Adeara Booth. “I’m definitely going to miss her smile, her laugh. She believed in me. She believed in my dreams. She believed in all of us.”
Booth said Bacon is not her biological mother, but the woman who raised her and who she calls mom. On Dec. 14, Booth said, she took Bacon to the hospital. They learned fluid built up in the grandmother’s heart and lungs.
“As I continued to keep track of her and the doctors, the doctors kept telling me and my sisters, ’Hey, your mom is getting better. There’s a possibility that she might get discharged,’” Booth recalled. “A week later, on Dec. 20, is when we were notified that she had COVID-19.”
From the sound of her voice, Booth said, she could tell that her mother’s health was declining.
“When I talked to my mom on a daily basis, her voice just kept getting weaker and kept getting weaker,” Booth said. “And it initially stopped when her heart stopped and her being put on a ventilator, and basically that was it. A couple of days later, she was gone.”
Booth said her mother will always be remembered for her loving and caring soul. She encourages those who have a loved one battling COVID-19 to take it day by day.
“Never stop praying,” Booth said. “Always continue to keep praying, even when you feel like praying is not enough.”
The family is in the process of planning Bacon’s funeral. Those wishing to help her family during this difficult time can donate here.