OCALA, Fla. – Teresa Twist, 62, died recently after her month-long fight with COVID-19 at Ocala Regional Medical Center.
It’s not just family and friends mourning the loss of Teresa Twist, but teachers and students at Ward-Highlands Elementary where she worked for more than seven years.
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Teresa Twist was legally blind. Her husband said she had a passion for helping others overcome learning obstacles like she did.
“When she was 18, they told her she’d have to get out of school because she could no longer see the chalk board,” Richard Twist said.
Teresa Twist would attend Hadley School for the Blind near Chicago, finishing her high school education and earning her teaching certificate. She then worked with special needs students at Ward-Highlands Elementary School in Ocala.
“She gave her heart and soul to our school. She was always the first one to go help someone. She actually started as a volunteer when her granddaughter attended this school, then she became an assistant teacher here,” principal Treasa Buck said.
Buck said Teresa Twist’s passion for her students can be seen through yearbook photos that sit in her office.
In one photo, Teresa Twist is seen in a class picture. Some students with their hands up, doing a funny pose.
Another shows Teresa Twist assisting a student in a wheelchair during a field trip.
“Here’s a field trip they took. She helped a student churn some butter,” Buck said.
“She would take out of her own sick hours to give to someone else who needed the money. If they needed food, if they needed someone to take care of them like driving them to the doctor, she would do it. That’s just who she was,” Buck said.
Teresa Twist died from COVID-19 complications on Thursday. Students are now without their teacher and a husband is without his wife of 36 years.
“We did everything together. It was the marriage of a lifetime... she was a woman of a lifetime. Now I’m left wondering what to do,” Richard Twist said.
Teresa Twist fought for her life for more than a month at Ocala Regional Medical Center. Twist’s family said she needed a double lung transplant after being diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis as a result of COVID-19. She would not survive the eight-week grace period needed to get her on a lung transplant list.
“She could have died on the (operating) table or in a thousand other ways, but they would have at least given her a fighting chance and that’s all I asked of them,” Richard Twist said.
Twist’s family is now calling for a change in policy for hospitals that perform lung transplants, to help give other patients another chance at life.
“The doctor taking care of her begged and pleaded for other hospitals to take her in as a donor, because she would not get better. He repeatedly told them she would not come back from this,” Richard Twist said. “The policy really needs to be changed somehow because hundreds of people are passing away from this because it’s needless, absolutely needless.”
As Teresa Twist is laid to rest next weekend, her colleagues at Ward-Highlands said her giving spirit will live on.
Teresa Twist’s celebration of life will be held on April 3 from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Roberts of Ocala Downtown Chapel located at 606 Southwest 2nd Ave. in Ocala. The family said there won’t be a dress code, but suggested guests wear something floral or tropical in Teresa Twist’s honor.
Teresa Twist’s daughter, Chasity Price, said the family has depleted all of their savings and is still working to find money to fund the celebration of life. You can donate to the family by clicking here. A GoFundMe page has also been created.
Although FEMA is offering financial assistance for funerals related to COVID-19, it is only reimbursing families whose loved ones died from COVID-19 in 2020, not 2021. Applications for that assistance won’t begin until April.
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