This month marks 5 years since my mother was taken from us. She was one of the many who were tragically taken due to complications of COVID.

When I learned she was sick, I called home every day to see how she was feeling. She would tell me that she was feeling better and improving. Then, without warning, I was told she was in the hospital and not doing well. I was confused. What had happened? I had learned that she was hiding from me how bad she truly was because she didn’t want me to worry.

Almost immediately she was intubated and connected to breathing machines. Then suddenly I was told she was not going to survive. The shock and pain were overwhelming. Everything was happening too fast. It couldn’t be right. But it was. My mother was dying. Alone, in the prison shower–the only place in prison you are truly alone–I cried.

In my mother’s last moments, a kind nurse held my daughter’s phone to my mother’s ear so I could tell her how much I loved her. An entirely inadequate expression of what my mother truly meant to me. I’m not sure how much she could hear over the ventilators and beeping equipment. She was unable to respond.

I need to believe my mother left this world hearing my voice and knowing how much I loved her. Losing my mother while wrongfully imprisoned was amongst the hardest things I was forced to endure. I was unable to grieve, unable cope, and unable accept the loss.
My mother’s love for me never faltered or was in doubt. Growing up she was always the first one to protect me and give me her unconditional love. Her hugs always took away my sorrow and comforted my pain.

My mother was taken from us before she was able to see my conviction overturned. My exoneration is every bit for her as it is for everyone in my family. Over the last few years, whenever my sister and I would talk about some new advancement in my case, we both would tear-up when one of us would inevitably say, “I wish mom was here to see this.”

My mother is missed every day, and her loss is felt by everyone in our family. ”Mom, we did it!! My conviction was overturned and I will be coming home. Thank you for always believing in me and loving me the way only you could. I love you and miss you.