As Tricia Somers nears the end of her battle with terminal liver cancer, the prospect of death is not what ultimately frightens her.
What frightens her most is what will become of her son. Somers is a single mother with no extended family members to care for her 8-year-old son Wesley.
After meeting Tricia Seaman, a nurse at Pinnacle Health's Community General Campus in Harrisburg, Pa., Somers knew she had found the perfect candidate and made an unusual request: “If I die, can you take my son?"
"She came in and I just felt this overwhelming feeling of comfort," Somers told ABC27. "It was strange. I never had that feeling before, and I thought she is going to take care of me. She is the one."
When considering who would take care of Wesley after she was gone, Somers knew her options were limited.
Her parents had passed away a few years back and Wesley’s father rarely made an appearance in his son’s life.
While she had worried about her resolution since being diagnosed with liver cancer last year, the situation became dire after she was told her condition was terminal back in March.
Seaman admitted to being shocked by Somers’ request but knew she had to consider the question earnestly.
"I think my jaw just kind of dropped to the floor. I truly was speechless," Seaman said. "Sometimes God has a plan for our lives. Sometimes we think we know what that plan is, but we really do not."
Seaman brought Somers' request back to her husband, three daughters, and son.
The stars seemed to align for both Somers and the Seaman family, who had already been considering adopting another son.
Following an initial feeling of shock, similar to his wife, Seaman’s husband knew his family needed to help out this woman he had never met.
We have got to figure out a way to make this happen.'"
Not long after Somers began her chemotherapy regimen did it become apparent that she would be unable to perform certain motherly responsibilities like taking her son to school.
The Seaman family knew the time had come to start caring for both mother and son.
When Somers was hospitalized back in May and doctors gave her only a month to live, the nurse she had relied on for more than diagnostic testing asked if she and her son would like to move in. Tearfully, she responded “I’d love to.”
While Somers undergoes another round of chemotherapy in hopes of spending as much time with her son as she can, Tricia and Dan Seaman have already started the paperwork to become Wesley’s legal guardians once his mother has passed on.
As Wesley prepares himself for a life without the only parent he has ever known, his new family is doing everything in their power to ensure his needs are met and to help him to understand that he will not be alone when his mother passes.
"It is a privilege to be able to walk with her on this journey," Tricia said. "We are going to be able to utilize this as we raise Wesley as we go forward with him.
His past is not a mystery to us and we have learned the traditions that are special to them and we can still do those things that meant a lot to him."
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