LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
We've been remembering the frontline workers who died of COVID-19 during this pandemic. Rose Harrison is one of those people. She worked at two nursing homes in Alabama and owned a barbecue restaurant with her husband. She had 10 grandchildren. They called her Mawmaw. Here's a voicemail she left for one of them.
(SOUNDBITE OF VOICEMAIL)
ROSE HARRISON: Hi, May. This is Mawmaw calling to wish you a happy birthday. Mawmaw loves you. Bye.
AMANDA WILLIAMS: Mother went to nursing school late in her 20s.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Amanda Williams is one of Rose's three daughters.
WILLIAMS: You know, she was able to enter the nursing profession, which was definitely her calling. She was able to push through it with, you know, us three children. You know, I use that as my inspiration because I was a single mom. And I went through nursing school. And I had three small children. You know, I thought, if she could do it, I can do it. She worked her entire life. She worked three jobs most of the time. She loved her family. Her family was her everything. She was the one that everybody turned to for that comfort. She was the family's comfort.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Rose Harrison cared for patients until she died in early April. She was 60 years old.
WILLIAMS: She loved to cut up and joke around and laugh and play with her grandbabies. And the older grandchildren called her for anything. And then, of course, the younger grandchildren loved to be around her and always wanted to go see Mawmaw and have that good bond.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Other remembrances of frontline workers are at npr.org. You can also submit an entry of your own there.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.