MARYVILLE, Tenn. — The family of a longtime Blount County Schools teaching assistant said she was exposed to COVID-19 at school before dying of the virus last month.
Joyce Parker, 59, worked at Montvale Elementary for more than 20 years. She died in mid-November of complications from the coronavirus, her family said.
While wide community spread of the virus in Blount County means they cannot be sure she contracted it in the classroom, her husband and two children said Parker developed symptoms around the same time she was exposed at school.
"That’s around the time that she got it, when they sent the teachers into quarantine," son Zachary Parker said.
In early November, Joyce Parker, her husband Michael and daughter Emily all developed symptoms of the virus. They said it caused Michael to pass out and require an IV of fluids at the hospital.
But the coronavirus hit Joyce Parker hardest.
"I finally told her 'You don't have a choice. Either you go to a doctor's office or I'm taking you to a hospital,'" daughter Emily Parker recounted.
At Blount Memorial Hospital, doctors put Joyce Parker on oxygen, then a ventilator, then — about six hours after arriving at the emergency room — her heart gave out.
"A nurse came out and talked to us and said either we can be in there for her last moments trying to bring her back and doing CPR or y'all can go in and be sitting with her. So that's what we did," Emily Parker said.
Joyce Parked died shortly after.
Her family said they remember her as a loving mother, who liked to read, travel and ride roller coasters.
They said they're going to miss having her by their side.
"For every school event, every sporting event she was just always present," Emily Parker said.
The school community she held dear as a "home away from home" remembered Parker as a compassionate teaching assistant.
"The impact she had on our students and staff alike is immeasurable," the district said in an email to families.
In a statement to 10News, the district said its thoughts and prayers are with the Parker family and the Montvale community.
The family has a message to share, too:
"Make sure this doesn't become your reality. Don't make it have to happen to you for you to actually believe it's true," Emily Parker said.