Mother Dies In School Parking Lot Before Daughters Graduation

Last week, on May 23rd, Jean Renee Byrd was on her way to see her daughter walk across the stage at her high school graduation, but collapsed just 200 feet from making it inside the school, wrote her family in a GoFundMe campaign.

Byrd’s passing came as a shock to her family, who had just celebrated her youngest son’s graduation ceremony from middle school three days prior, per the GoFundMe campaign.

According to WXII, a television station based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Marquan Matthews, Byrd’s son, who is also the creator of the GoFundMe campaign, was already inside the ceremony and rushed out to perform CPR on his mother until the paramedics arrived.

Jean Byrd had a “constant battle with heart issues, dealing with 2 previous heart attacks, which made her a fighter,” wrote Matthews in the GoFundMe description.

Byrd’s daughter, Meilean Byrd, was walking across the stage as Matthews performed CPR on their mother. “I thought it was like a car accident, so I wasn’t really scared,” Meilean said through tears, according to PEOPLE.

A guidance counsellor was waiting to escort her to the hospital as she returned to her seat, per WXII.

“We never thought that on this day, a day filled of joy, would be the worst day of our lives. As my sister was graduating high school, our mother is lying on the ground fighting for her life,” Matthews wrote in the description of the GoFundMe campaign.

To respect their mother’s wishes, her children are using the GoFundMe campaign to raise the money to bury their mom in Philadelphia with her family and other family members.

“Many lives were positively impacted by the love and resilience of our mother,” Matthew wrote in the campaign description. “Mommy, we love, 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.”

At the time of this article, 73 percent of the $35K target has been raised for the burial service.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-loving-tribute-to-ma-dukes