While attending his sister’s graduation, Marquan Matthews was shocked when his aunt called to inform him that his mother, Jean Byrd, had collapsed. Matthews was waiting for his mother to join him inside the arena.
Jean Byrd died of cardiac arrest “just 200 feet” from her daughter Meilean’s graduation at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on May 23, according to her family in a GoFundMe campaign description written by her son.
After Matthews had received that call, a security officer took him to the parking lot in a golf cart. He then went on to give his mother CPR until paramedics could get there.
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“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 added. “I just see them last few moments of my mom, just being gone.”
Meilean had no idea what was going on at the time, but she crossed the stage and soon received her diploma from Parkland High School. She was then approached by a guidance counselor who informed her that her mother “had an accident,” and then she was led away to the hospital.
“I thought it was like a car accident, so I wasn’t really scared,” Meilean told the site.
In the days leading up to Byrd’s passing and Meilean’s high school graduation, Byrd’s youngest son, Marsuan, went to his eighth-grade graduation.
On the GoFundMe page, Matthews revealed that his mother “had the honor of seeing him” cross the stage during the ceremony.
He started the family’s fundraising campaign to “make sure she gets her last wishes”—that is, to be buried in Pennsylvania with her father and other family members.
The son noted that his mother, nicknamed “Ma Dukes,” shared a lot of infectious love through many years, touching the souls of the lost and being a saint to many who needed it.
“We never thought that on this day, a day filled of joy, would be the worst day of our lives,” Matthews continued. “As my sister was graduating high school, our mother is lying on the ground fighting for her life. As my sister is walking across the stage, I’m doing CPR on my mother. She died an hour later on my sister’s graduation.”
According to him, Byrd had “a constant battle with heart issues” and had experienced “two heart attacks” in the past.
“She was so resilient and such a warrior, fighting for all her kids no matter how much pain and suffering she was in,” Matthews wrote. “No matter what our mother went through, she always stayed positive and figured out a way. No matter how bad my mom was hurting, she still made people smile and feel at home in their hearts with every person who crossed paths with her.”
“Many lives were positively impacted by the love and resilience of our mother, and we’re extending an invitation to you to help give my mom the celebration she always wanted and deserves. Mommy we love you, I’m lost without you, and I pray you give me the guidance you did once on this earth to make you proud. Rest In Paradise my beautiful lady,” he concluded the note that was signed by family.
Byrd’s funeral will be conducted on June 14.
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