A mom of an ICU nurse covered her daughter with a bed sheet to give her a hug

By Alaa Elassar

Cheryl Norton hugs her daughter, Kelsey Kerr, 28, an ICU nurse at Christ Hospital.

(CNN)Millions of people around the world are wishing for something they took for granted before the coronavirus pandemic changed life as we know it. For Cheryl Norton, that something is a hug from her daughter.

Norton's daughter, Kelsey Kerr, is an ICU nurse at Christ Hospital in Ohio. Although Kerr hasn't had to interact with any coronavirus patients yet, she is still afraid of an uncertain future.

 

Like most mothers of health care workers whose children are on the frontlines of the dangerous battle against the pandemic, Norton felt like she had no way of helping her daughter. That was until a quick, spur of a moment decision led her to cover Kerr in a bed sheet and give her a big hug.

 

"For a single second, everybody else was gone and I was just hugging my daughter," Norton told CNN. "It was like she was safe for that one minute and I could take it all away from her."

 

Cheryl Norton (left) and her daughter, Kelsey Kerr (right).

Kerr had been visiting her mom to pick up prayer shawls to give to her patients at the ICU as a way to ease the pain of being at the hospital alone due to the hospital's visitor restrictions. 

 

Right before her daughter left, Norton saw a basket of clean clothes and said she "didn't even think about it" before grabbing a sheet and throwing it over her daughter's head.

 

While the two were closer than the recommended six feet of distance, Kerr had not been in contact with any Covid-19 patients and was wearing a mask under the bed sheet. She and her husband, along with their dogs, have been self-isolating at their home just 15 minutes away from Norton.

 

"It's been so hard to be away from her and not even be able to touch her or give her a hug," Kerr said. "Everything's just been so difficult but she made me feel so much better. It was a moment of normalcy. We both really needed that."

 

The hug was more than just a way to tell her daughter that was she was still there for her. It was a way to show her they would be in it together -- all the way until the end. 

 

"As a parent, you know you'd take a bullet for your kid," Norton said. "I don't want her to face what she's facing, but that's what she was built for. I'm so proud of her and all the health care workers out there. I wish I could give them all a hug."

 

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A mom of an ICU nurse covered her daughter with a bed sheet to give her a hug