After being diagnosed with a rare, terminal form of vascular cancer in her liver, Tricia Somers asked her nurse the favor of a lifetime, though she had known her only a few weeks.
Somers, a 45-year-old single mother of an 8-year-old boy, Wesley, asked her nurse, Tricia Seamen, if she would take care of her son after she died. The two Tricias had met after Somers began undergoing cancer treatment in March at a hospital in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, according to NBC TODAY. Somers says she knew right away that Seamen had entered her life for a reason.
“I remember when she came into the room, it was just an overwhelming feeling I had over me. It’s really hard to understand -- it was just a warmth,” Somers said. “I felt calm, I felt at peace, I felt like this woman is going to be the one who’s going to take care of me.”
Somers didn't have many options for potential guardians for her son. Her parents had both died, and her son's father was out of the picture.
"Frantically, I said to Tricia, 'If I die can you take my son? Can you care for my son?' I pretty much floored her because no one had asked her to take their child. I figured she thinks I am crazy, but I knew that is what I wanted," Somers told ABC-affiliate WHTM-TV.
"I think my jaw just kind of dropped to the floor. I truly was speechless," Seaman, who has three daughters and a son of her own, told the outlet.
In May, as Somers' chemotherapy treatments began to take a physical toll on her, Seaman invited the mother and son to come live with her family. Seaman and her husband have since signed documents to become Wesley Somers' guardians after his mother's death.
"We just want to Trish to live life to the fullest and ... we love her and love Wesley," Seaman told ABC News. "He's a very smart little boy. We want to see him get an education and be successful and know that he's not alone. He has a family. He's not going to be all by himself."
In May, Somers was told she had only a few weeks left to live. But she is still holding on, in part, she says, because of her new family circle.
“Ultimately, this family has saved my life because I was told in May that I may have a month, and I’m still here,” Somers told TODAY.
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