MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – What do you say to a five-year-old boy whose father has died of COVID-19?
That’s the question that faced the family of Michael Mason, a truck driver living in Olive Branch who hadn’t received a vaccination and died in a hospital in July at the age of 44.
His youngest son, Maxwell, is only five and lives in Memphis. The boy’s mother is trying to help him deal with his grief.
“She explained to him that he will not see Michael,” said Sabrina McCray, a sister of the man who died. “He won’t be able to see him. But that my brother Michael will be always looking over him – so like the brightest star in the sky.”
“She says some nights what they do is go outside. And that Maxwell will look for the brightest star.” Then he speaks to the star as though it was his father, she said.