Ke’Lin Dillard never got to hold her newborn baby.
Her daughter Morgan was due in August, and Ms. Dillard held a socially distant drive-by baby shower on July 18 for friends and family. But she started feeling ill after the shower, and two days later she was admitted to a hospital, where she tested positive for the coronavirus.
By July 29, her oxygen levels had begun to plummet, and she underwent an emergency C-section. Morgan did not test positive for the virus, but doctors placed her in intensive care to monitor her condition and protect her from possible infection. Family members had to choose whether they would take care of Morgan or Ms. Dillard, to avoid passing the infection from mother to child.
Ke’Lin Deneen Dillard was born on Dec. 18, 1990, in Baton Rouge. Ms. Denman, her mother, works for the city’s transit system, overseeing its compliance with laws to make it accessible for people with disabilities. Her father, Menard Dillard, is a retired police officer.
Ke’Lin graduated from Glen Oaks High School in 2009 and, soon after, attended the Baton Rouge campus of Fortis College, where she received a certificate as a medical assistant.
She began working as a caregiver with ResCare, a private provider of home care for disabled people. In recent years she was a driver for people with special needs through a transportation company in Baton Rouge and, later, a classroom trainer for other drivers.
Along with her parents and Morgan, Ms. Dillard’s survivors include a 9-year-old daughter, Ka’Laiyah; a brother, Bryson Jordan; her half sisters, Danyelle Dillard and Adrian Dillard; and her half brother, Daniel Dillard.
As posted in the New York Times – Those We’ve Lost