NATICK, MASS. (WHDH) - A daughter’s final phone call with her mother has been viewed millions of times after the granddaughter shared the emotional moment on TikTok.
“I love you mom so much, OK? You’re the best mommy in the whole world, always the best momma,” Linda Onorato told her mother Roberta Tately, who died just hours later due to complications of the novel coronavirus.
“I didn’t want to end the conversation because I didn’t want to stop talking to her,” Onorato said.
One of Tately’s four granddaughters, 16-year-old Francesca, recorded the moment in an effort to show people that there are families suffering heavy losses behind all the statistics.
Nearly 16 million people have now seen the heartbreaking phone call between mother and daughter and even though Tately could not respond, Onorato said, “I just knew she could hear me and I knew, I didn’t want to say goodbye because I just didn’t want to scare her.”
“She was the best mother anyone would ever have and I miss her, I’m going to miss her,” she continued.
Tately was recovering from a bout with pneumonia at a Framingham rehabilitation facility. At first, she tested negative for the virus.
“She started showing symptoms and they just said it’s going to come real fast,” Onorato recalled.
The family said they are grateful Francesca filmed their final goodbye.
“I wanted to film something to have like a memory forever,” the teen explained.
They have found comfort in all the heart-felt responses they have received from the video and offered a message of their own: “At this time it’s so hard because you really feel alone but I want to let people know they are not alone we’re all in this together,” Onorato said.
The family is planning a celebration of life ceremony for some time this summer. They have set up a GoFundMe to offset the costs of the ceremony.
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