nprglobalhealth:

“It was difficult at the beginning as we began to grieve. Her picture was everywhere, in the newspapers, on television, on social media. But now it helps in the sense that people are offering genuine support. This came from our nucleus of family and friends to begin with. But then after that, it has become even bigger. And so, I was comforted by people I know and now I’m being comforted by people I don’t even know.” — Bankole Cardoso

Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh (left in photo above) was the head of First Consultants Medical Centre in Lagos, Nigeria. She was among the health care workers who cared for Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer — Nigeria’s first Ebola patient. Sawyer wanted to leave the hospital but she refused, preventing him from further spreading the virus throughout the city of 20 million people. 

Dr. Adadevoh then came down with the virus herself. She didn’t survive. Her only son, Bankole Cardoso, who turned 26 while his mother was fighting Ebola, shared his thoughts about her life and death — and her legacy.

Read the interview here: A Son Is Lost Without His Mother. So Is A Country

Photo courtesy of Bankole Cardoso.