Donna Durkin‘s son knew his mom would be too weak to fight off COVID-19 after they learned of her diagnosis. According to BuzzFeed, Durkin’s son explained that his mom had diabetes and was once hospitalized with kidney failure three years ago.
Among those hardships, Durkin also had a handful of other health issues that would make her fight even harder. According to her family, Durkin went to the hospital on April 2, learned she had tested positive on April 3 and had passed away on April 5.
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As Michael Durkin told BuzzFeed, he knew it was only a matter of time before his 63-year-old mother would contract COVID-19. “I knew, with everything going on and the type of conditions that she had, it was only a matter of time that she would get it, and I knew she would be too weak to fight it off.”
Sadly, after being admitted into the hospital, Durkin’s family was unable to see her one last time to ever say goodbye through FaceTime. The family said she was too weak to even talk to them on the phone.
In the same interview with BuzzFeed, Durkin’s daughter, Danielle Durkin, added that the process of it all almost felt inhumane to her. “Patients are completely whisked away, and, like, my brother was unable to go visit her at all. It is completely shot. It almost feels like it’s inhumane.”
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“She didn’t deserve what happened,” Danielle continued. “Like, she didn’t deserve to be alone, and all we wanted was to tell her that we love her one last time.” At the time of her passing, Michael was caring for their mother.
Durkin was described as “the funniest mother I have ever met” to BuzzFeed by a longtime family friend, Sean Leshko, “She was so funny and it wasn’t because she was trying to be funny. It was just because that was her.”
Leshko also described the mom as extremely generous, saying that after his father died, around the same time her husband passed away from cancer, she cared for him like she cared for her own children who were going through something similar.
Although Durkin had planned for her funeral years ago, the family was unable to fulfill many of her wishes due to stay-at-home orders caused by the global pandemic. Instead, they buried their mom with some of her favorite things, like a “back scratcher, a word puzzle, silk flowers, and black licorice.” Our thoughts and prayers are with the Durkin family during this difficult time.