JONESBORO, Ark. — We have worked tirelessly since the start of the pandemic to share stories and faces behind the numbers we hear each day.
Now, we're sadly sharing a 46-year-old Arkansas mother's struggle with the virus, one she lost just a few weeks ago, leaving her family grieving and shocked.
Margaret Hilderbran, nicknamed Margo, was kind, generous, and always willing to help. According to her mother, Margo always went out of her way to help anyone who she thought she could offer any assistance to and give them a smile.
Friendly and outgoing, she was dependable and hard-working up to the day that she got sick. She worked full-time at St. Bernard's Medical Center in Jonesboro, where she was from.
She adored her two sons, ages 12 and 14. They, along with her husband, are now devastated.
Her mother, who is 70 years old and a widow, says Margo checked on her every day.
Her supervisor told her in early July she had been exposed to COVID-19 by another co-worker. Margo then got sick, but coronavirus tests were initially negative.
By mid to late July, she was hospitalized, gasping for breath. Within a month, she was gone.
Her family said the only condition she ever had was mild childhood asthma, which never caused her any real trouble.
Margo's mom shared that Margo was excited about the birth of her nephew, who was two days old when she passed. She told her mom days before she died that she was scared.
Her mom wants the world to know the medical staff who cared for her daughter was receptive, kind, and answered all of her questions.
"I miss her so very much," she said. "She was my lifeline."
She also wants everyone to know this virus is insidious and non-discriminatory. It strikes anybody and if it strikes hard, there does not seem to be a way of stopping it.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Margo's family and every family coping with coronavirus in any capacity.