Florida teacher, 67, and her 43-year-old school cafeteria manager daughter - who were both unvaccinated - die of COVID just days apart
A veteran Florida teacher and her school cafeteria manager daughter have succumbed to COVID-19 at the same hospital just days apart. Neither was vaccinated against the virus.
Lillian Smith, 67, had taught first grade at Dr William A Chapman Elementary School in Homestead, Florida, for 30 years.
She died without getting the chance to meet her new class. A family friend said Smith, who had multiple grandchildren of her own, called all her students 'her babies.'
Florida teacher Lillian Smith, 67 , and her daughter Lakisha Williams, 43 , died of COVID just days apart in August
Smith had taught first grade at Chapman Elementary School in Homestead for 30 years
Her daughter Lakisha Williams, 43, had worked for 17 years at Miami-Dade Public School and just weeks ago had been promoted to a school cafeteria manager. She leaves behind a husband and two children, reported Local 10.
Both Smith and Williams were hospitalized at Jackson South Medical Center in early August to be treated for complications related to COVID-19. Both ended up been put on ventilators because they could not breathe on their own.
According to a relative's social media posts, Smith succumbed to the illness on or around August 21, followed by Williams just four days later.
'I was so proud when she got her degree to be this manager, and my wife only did this not even a month,' Williams' husband, Jermaine Williams, said through tears.
Williams, pictured left on her wedding day alongside her mom, died on August 25, just four days after her mother
Jermaine Williams, Lakisha' husband, said his wife had just been promoted to a school cafeteria manager after earning a college degree
According to the widower, as his wife lay dying in the hospital, one of her last wishes was to have their teenage son and daughter vaccinated against COVID.
Smith's long-time co-worker Suzy Burstein told Miami Herald that she 'begged' her to get the vaccine when it first became available, but she kept putting it off.
'The scariest thing to me was that this didn’t have to happen,' Burstein said. 'I’ve also said to myself ‘I failed her. I failed her.’ And that’s something that I’ll always have to live with because I couldn’t convince her.'
Heartbroken family members have been flooding Facebook with messages of mourning for the two women.
Friends said Smith loved her students and called them her 'babies.' Neither she nor her daughter was vaccinated
Williams' husband said one of her final wishes was to have their two children vaccinated against COVID
'Dance in paradise my Loves Lillian Smith&Lakisha Smith,' wrote Keya Girtman, Smith's granddaughter and Williams' niece. 'Lord knows this is hard for me.'
Smith's other granddaughter, also named Lillian Smith, posted on August 22 that losing her grandmother did not feel real.
'You helped me with so many problems ... who am I gonna go to about anything when you was the only person I felt understood me,' she wrote.' I promise I’m gonna do right by our name your never gonna be forgotten!'
Miami-Dade County Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the back-to-back deaths of Smith and Williams are a reminder of how 'destructive' COVID-19 is.
At least 40 Florida educators have succumbed to the virus since July, reported CBS12.