This Mother s Day, hundreds of local families are mourning the loss of their mom to COVID and thousands are feeling grateful that their mom survived it.
By Wednesday, 243 women in Chatham, Effingham and Bryan counties had died of COVID. With more than 80% of American women over age 40 having children, it s likely many of these women are being grieved by their children this Mother s Day.
Among them are Sarah Williams, whose mother Jan Hendry died at 71 in January. Williams mourns the self-sacrificing single mom who won t get to see her 2-year-old grandson grow up. David and Sara Plaspohl mourn David s mother, who owed her existence to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.