MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — A Miami-Dade County Public Schools teacher and her daughter, a school cafeteria manager, died of complications with COVID-19 at Jackson South Medical Center.
Two teenagers are grieving their mother, Lakisha Williams, and their grandmother, Lillian Smith, a first-grade teacher at Dr. William A. Chapman Elementary School in Miami-Dade County’s Naranja neighborhood.
Williams’ husband, Jermaine Williams, said she and Smith were not vaccinated against COVID-19 and were admitted to the hospital in early August. Williams had recently been promoted.
“I was so proud when she got her degree to be this manager, and my wife only did this — not even a month,” the grieving widower said through tears.
Jermaine Williams described Smith, his mother-in-law, as “a wonderful lady” who loved her students as “her babies.”
Miami-Dade County Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the family tragedy is a painful reminder of how destructive the coronavirus is. Jermaine Williams said that as she suffered in the hospital, one of her last wishes was to make sure her two teenagers got vaccinated against COVID-19.
More on pandemic
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- Judge: Florida schools can mandate masks, DeSantis overstepped
- Miami-Dade County opens 24-hour free COVID testing site
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