JACKSONVILLE, Fla —
It's been more than a month since Easton Whitaker, 5, has been able to hug his mother. She's a paramedic who works in the emergency room at Baptist Medical Center in downtown Jacksonville.
"There's a whole COVID-19 section, an isolation section, that's within the ER, and that's where I worked," Kendall Whitaker explained. "I worked one-on-one with the patients who came in with all of the classic COVID-19 symptoms, patients who eventually tested positive."
Easton is receiving in hospice care, and she didn't want to risk exposing him to the coronavirus.
"He's had a heart transplant. You know, he's immunocompromised and he is in heart failure," Whitaker said.
Then the pandemic, who is a single mom, made the tough decision to send Easton and his 7-year-old brother to their grandparent's house so she didn't risk exposing them to the virus.
Her coworker started a Go Fund Me page for her and after our story aired last month, generous strangers donated more than $23,000, enough money to allow her to take a leave of absence from work and stay home with her boys for at least seven months. On Monday, after being in quarantine for two weeks, Easton and his brother finally get to come home.
"I don't know how much time I have left with him so it just means to me that I get to spend whatever time he has left with him. I get to enjoy all the time that I have," Whitaker said. "It just makes my heart whole. It just gives me the greatest sense of peace."
Peace and gratitude for everyone who selflessly donated money to help her be able to reunite with Easton and his brother.
"It's like I'm just glowing with happiness, and as soon as he is in my arms it's just going to be a complete and utter bliss," Whitaker said. "Thank you from the absolute bottom of my heart it means the absolute world to me."