Mom Dies Outside Daughter’s High School Graduation. Family Now Raising Money for ‘Last Wishes’

A mother unexpectedly collapsed and died in a parking lot moments before her daughter’s high school graduation in North Carolina.

On May 23, Jean Byrd was at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C., ahead of her daughter Meilean’s graduation when she died “just 200 feet” from the ceremony, her family wrote in a GoFundMe campaign description and told local NBC affiliate WXII.

Marquan Matthews — Byrd’s son, who was inside the venue at the time — recalled getting a phone call from his aunt about the incident, before a security guard drove him in a golf cart to the parking lot, WXII reported. He then performed CPR until paramedics arrived.

Byrd died of cardiac arrest, according to the GoFundMe description, which was written by her son.

“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, who walked across the stage and earned her diploma from Parkland High School shortly after, had no idea what was happening at the time, per WXII.

A guidance counselor was waiting for her and told her that her mother “had an accident,” before Meilean was escorted out and to the hospital, the graduate told the outlet.

“I thought it was like a car accident, so I wasn’t really scared,” Meilean said through tears as family consoled her.

Three days before Meilean’s high school graduation, and Byrd’s death, her youngest son, Marsuan, attended his eighth-grade graduation ceremony.

Matthews wrote on the GoFundMe page that his mother “had the honor of seeing him” walk across the stage at the event.

He launched the family’s fundraising campaign in an effort to “make sure she gets her last wishes” of being buried by her father and other family in Pennsylvania.

As the son wrote, his mother — who was known as “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.”

Byrd, who was a “fighter,” according to her son, had “a constant battle with heart issues” and previously suffered “two heart attacks.”

“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.

Funeral services for Byrd will be held on June 14, per the GoFundMe.