"I told her she just had to keep fighting. mom and she said she was trying hard as she could," said Denise Oliver-Stergiou. As COVID cases mount, some families are telling their own stories of those lost to the virus.
"I just said you have to fight for this mom. it's not your time to go," said Danielle Oliver. "She just said I love you and that was the last time I talked to my mom. She was put on a ventilator, and 3 days later she passed away," said Oliver-Stergiou. The two sisters lost their mother 67-year-old Veronica Oliver, to COVID on Thanksgiving.
She went into the hospital at the beginning of November and never came home. "I knew how bad it was just from the tone in her voice. You could tell she was scared. You could hear she was almost gasping for breath," said Danielle Oliver.
"VO" as she was called affectionately, worked for Saint Mary's Hospital for 42 years, up to the day she got sick. She was an instructor for the Special Olympics Golf Team, and she taught phlebotomy classes at TMCC. The public noticed when she got sick.
"Every single day I would have half a dozen people telling me to please let my mom know, they were behind her sending her their strength," said Oliver-Stergiou. They are thankful to have her as a mom. A testament to her character was that she adopted both of them.
That wasn't the end of her taking care of people. "One of the stories that her good friend shared was the day that she met VO was in her interview. She got up and gave her a hug before they even started. No one was a stranger. She was friends with everyone," said Danielle Oliver.
The two sisters want people to know how difficult it was to see their mother in the hospital. "When you lose a loved one to COVID and they are in the hospital, it's one of the hardest things. Because you can't be with them, they basically die alone," said Oliver-Stergiou.
They are asking people to observe the CDC's guidelines on COVID, so others don't lose a loved one like they did.
