By Helen Castano | 08:35 PM February 10, 2021
The young Estrella Bersamen-Catalan.
Pacita Bersamen was hopeful to see her daughter Estrella Bersamen-Catalan in Bohol.
But it didn’t happen when Estrella died last Friday of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom, one of the hospital’s frontliners who helped flattened the curve of Covid-19.
“I am so sad,” Pacita said while holding the photo of her Estrella. “I missed her terribly.”
She said the last time Estrella and her family visited Bohol was in 2018.
Estrella became ill last December 27. She was hospitalized at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH), where she had worked for almost two decades.
“Don’t worry Nay, I am okay here. Please take care of yourself,” Pacita recalled the last words of Estrella while in the hospital.
I joined the war against this virus COVID-19, along with my colleagues as a front-liner, a noble profession that I had chosen since I was young.
That was January 7, 2021. Her last call.
Throughout the days, she grew weaker.
Estrella died on Friday, Feb. 5. She was 52.
Pacita Bersamen holds the photo of her daughter Estrella Bersamen-Catalan and grandson Vincent.
Estrella was born and grew up in Barangay Tugas in Candijay town, Bohol. She finished nursing at University of Bohol in 1989. She was married to Melvin Catalan, an engineer from La Carlota City, Negros Occidental. They have three sons- John, Vince and Josuah. Vince died two years ago.
Sam Higginson, NNUH chief executive, said Catalan was a wonderful person and a caring and conscientious nurse who loved to teach and mentor students.
Catalan, in a March 19, 2020 post on her Facebook page, wrote: “I joined the war against this virus COVID-19, along with my colleagues as a front-liner, a noble profession that I had chosen since I was young.”