Transcendients: Memorial to Healthcare Workers
Died 16 June 2020
JACQUES MCCONICO
RACE/ETHNICITY Black
OCCUPATION Certified Nursing Assistant
LOCATION Birmingham, Alabama
AGE 49
CONCERNS ABOUT ADEQUATE PPE? Unknown/Other
Worked nearly every day at nursing home during pandemic
Friends and family knew Jacques McConico as “Toosweet”.
Her mother, Darleen Peoples, said McConico earned the nickname through her “giving spirit”.
When the coronavirus reached the nursing home where McConico worked, Peoples said, her daughter was working nearly every day and often was called back after her shift ended.
On Mother’s Day weekend, McConico had a pajama party with her family. She ate banana pudding pie and danced in the street with her daughter and sisters.
A month later, on 13 June, McConico told her mother she had tested positive for Covid-19. They stayed on the phone for three hours. “And I was … just crying out to God to save my daughter,” Peoples said. “She said, 'Mom, I can't breathe.'”
An ambulance later took McConico to the hospital. That week, Diversicare of Riverchase reported a running total of 61 confirmed Covid-19 cases among residents and 28 more among staffers, as well as 12 resident deaths. McConico died two days before her 50th birthday.
Her mother believes McConico was infected at work.
A Diversicare spokesperson said it is unclear where McConico contracted the virus, noting it was “widely present” in the city. The company said it has worked to ensure staff members have appropriate protective equipment. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened an investigation at Diversicare of Riverchase on June 17. As of 13 September, Diversicare of Riverchase had reported zero staff deaths due to the coronavirus.
― Madison Conte, University of Missouri