SPECIAL REPORT: Remembering the many moms lost to the coronavirus pandemic this Mother’s Day

News 11's Adonis Albright sits down with families whom share their story about losing their loved ones

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Mother's Day is something we celebrate every year. But in the aftermath of what was the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, some people are having to come to terms with the fact that this Mother's Day will be the first time they're celebrating without their moms, after losing them to the deadly virus that has changed the lives of countless individuals.

For Paula Benavides-Perez, it's hard to stomach the fact that this will be her first Mother's Day without her mom, Eldemira Gonzalez, who passed away after contracting COVID-19 at 79 years old. Back in December of 2020, her mom told her she wasn't feeling good, but nobody in her family expected what would come next.

"I honestly just took her to get the COVID test thinking it was gonna’ be a negative, she didn’t… she didn’t look sick to me, she said that she just didn’t feel good", said Benavides-Perez.

Despite her mom always staying on top of her physical health, things quickly took a turn for the worse.

"The COVID had already done so much damage to her organs, and you know it was one organ after another shutting off," Benavides-Perez continued. "My father, he had a really hard time with it, so you know when the doctors ask: ‘Do we just disconnect her?’ Like, no body wants to do it, so we just said, whenever her time is, it’s time for her to go, then she’ll let us know and she did… and she waited, I kept saying ‘Just not on my birthday, mom, you know? Let’s just wait a little bit’, and she did. She gave me that."

It's a heartbreaking story that many around the world now share. Mariela Quinteros, 25, and her sister, Clarissa Quinteros, 26, lost both of their parents to the coronavirus earlier this year, just a few months apart.

"We were a really close family, me and my brother and my sister and my dad and my mom, it's always just us and the kids… Life without them has been really hard and difficult", said Clarissa. "Three days after her birthday, she passed away."

Their mother, Gabriela Quinteros, was 52. Their father Pablo was 51.

"We took my dad in a week later because he had COVID as well, and then my dad only made it about two days in the hospital before he had to be ventilated as well, and then he lasted about 14 days on the ventilator and then he passed away. During that time, my mom was on a ventilator as well, so my mom never had any recollection of my dad passing away", said Mariela.

Mariela just graduated with her master's degree, and knows that if her parents could talk to her and her sister, they would be proud beyond belief, especially with how resilient they've been.

Josefina Reyes also shared her story with News 11, after losing her mom to COVID last year. Her mother, María Elena García Zuniga, was a very family-oriented person, who always put others first.

"The last time that we got together was Mother’s day, last year", said Reyes.

Shortly after that, however, is when her father contracted COVID-19, and it quickly spread through the family.

"From there on, everybody else got sick. My mom ended up going into the hospital, and eventually once she got to ICU, we kind of knew that it was something that wasn’t going to be good. We all got cleared from the health department; and I was the last one to get cleared, to get sick. My mom passed away the following day. She kind of, I guess - I always see it as she needed to make sure we all made it before she could go.” 

Josefina said she didn't get closer with her mom until she became a mother herself. It's only then that she started to see eye-to-eye with where her mom was coming from all those years prior. This Mother's Day, Josefina and her family are planning one of her mom's favorite things: bringing a Mariachi band to her gravesite to honor her memory.

Jennie Franco's mom, Teresa Franco, lost her fight against the coronavirus in June of last year. Before she got sick, one of her favorite things to do was dance with her now-late husband. Jennie wears a mask bearing her mother's name, and the date that she passed away. It's a reminder that she and her family will carry on through these hard times.

“If you have your loved ones still around, your parents, your mom, your dad. Don’t take them for granted. Don’t take them for granted at all because one day they won’t be here", said Franco.