'We just wanted to reflect and think of our loved ones and each other'

The heartbroken daughter of a grandmother who lost her life to Covid-19 earlier this year came up with the idea to place a Christmas tree in her estate in Navan to remember loved ones lost during lockdown.

Nicola McGrath’s mother, Susan O’Neill from Dundrum was just 64 when she died from the killer virus in May.

Heartbreakingly, the brave grandmother had previously beaten both breast cancer and leukaemia and contracted Covid-19 while receiving treatment in hospital.

Susan spent 16 days in ICU on a ventilator before passing away, her devastated family unable to be at her side.

Grieving Nicola wanted to pay tribute to her “superhero mum” along with six other families who lost loved ones in Abbeygrove estate in Navan. She said:

“We put up the Christmas tree at the entrance to the estate and invited people to add something to the tree for their loved one.

“We felt that if people were driving in and out of the estate they would just reflect and think of their loved one and think about each other.

“We didn’t get proper send offs for our loved ones.

“We were all in it together, we wanted to reach out and make sure there was airtual hug, that we knew Christmas was going to be strange but we’d get through it.”

Nicola describes her mum’s journey before sadly losing her life to the virus earlier this year. She said:

“Mum was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 and she got the all clear. A few months later she started to get dizzy and she went to her doctor and was immediately sent in for blood tests and the results were rushed back and they discovered she had Leukaemia.

“The two cancers were not related which was even more unbelievable.

“She was in remission before she got Covid and was about to get the bone marrow transplant when lockdown came but then everything was put on hold.

“She was getting this miracle chemotherapy treatment where she was hooked up to a bag for two weeks at a time. She was only the second patient ever in Ireland to have this treatment so this medication was to keep her in remission.

“The last test they did, they couldn’t find any leukaemia in the bone marrow so this medication had wiped it out which meant that they were confident that this bone marrow transplant would be successful so we thought our superhero has pulled it off again.

“In April she went into have the bag changed and she had to stay in hospital for 48 hours and that’s when she got the virus.

“She came home for two weeks and was isolated. Her breathing got tough and she was brought into hospital, she went to ICU and she spent 16 days on a ventilator.

“My father would ring the hospital every night and they used to put the phone to her ear and he would play love songs to her and we’d talk to her as if she was going to answer back.

“The day after her birthday, her breathing got so bad and they said she is just so tired and is not able to fight it and we will have to sedate her and she never woke up.

“It was just very surreal not to be there beside her to hold her hand and say it’s ok if you have to go you have to go.”

“She was just such a fighter and she was so positive, she took it all in her stride, she was like this won’t get me.”

It was only after Susan passed away that Nicola and her family realised that their thoughtful mum had written letters for them to read after she had gone.

“She wrote letters when she was diagnosed with breast cancer that no one knew about.

“When she was in the bedroom with Covid at home isolating she said just to let you know, beside my bed there is a copy book and inside it there are letters and I just said I’m not talking about it, I just didn’t want to know.

“They were so beautiful.”

Her mum “having such a passion for life” makes her loss seem all the more unfair according to the Navan mum of three.

“She was full of life, for her 60th birthday she jumped out of an aeroplane and she raised hundreds of thousands over the years for charity.

“She went to Glastonbury two years ago, it was on her bucket list and she said it was the best weekend of her life. When someone has such a passion for life it just seems so unfair.

“My dad had the most amazing 49 years of his life with her. He is lost without her. She lived for her grandkids. She was the glue that kept our family together.”