A South Carolina teacher recently died following complications from COVID-19, and her mother passed weeks later.
CNN reports that 57-year-old Shirley Bannister, who was grieving the loss of her 28-year-old elementary school educator daughter Demetria, "got really sick about two, three days after her daughter died." Shirley's brother Dennis Bell said that she had a history of diabetes and asthma, and when she tested positive for the virus she went to the hospital two times. "The second time they decided to keep her," he added. "She had so much to give, so this is like an unexpected gut punch for the whole family."
Shirley had tested positive for the coronavirus the same day her daughter died earlier this month.
Bannister, like her daughter, worked in education as the chair of the nursing department at Midlands Technical College in Columbia. Ronald Rhames, the president of the college, described Shirley as being "like an angel on earth" whose life mission was "caring for others." He continued, "While her death is devastating, her impact is everlasting. The entire MTC family offer her family support and our prayers."
Bell said Shirley and her daughter "were the best of friends," frequently going to dinner or concerts together. "Demetria, in a sense, was just like her mother," he said. Shirley is survived by her husband Dennis Bannister.
