More than 6,000 North Carolinians lost their lives to coronavirus this year. Thousands of families are having to celebrate Christmas Day with one less loved one at the dinner table.
The daughter of Annie Pearl Wiggins, from Rocky Mount, is one of them. If you lived on August Drive in Rocky Mount, you knew Annie Pearl Wiggins. She ran a beauty shop right out of her home for 40 years.
Kendra Ward, Wiggins’ daughter, said her 68-year-old mother was funny, honest and a giver.
She died in October only three weeks after catching coronavirus. Instead of crying this Christmas, Ward is trying to laugh — like her mother always had.
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“The thing I will miss most about her is how she would dig into people’s plates to get their food,” Ward said with a laugh. “Particularly my husband. She would look over and see what you got, and she would dig her hand right into your plate.”ADVERTISING
Behind Ward’s laughter is grief and pain, over a life that was taken from her too soon.
She says hair products smell like her mother, who worked until the day she fell ill.
“She took all of the necessary precautions,” she said. “I saw hand sanitizer, Lysol spray, gloves, she even had masks at the door for clients who didn’t have a mask. So she followed all of the rules.”
Ward said that this Christmas will be easier than Thanksgiving. She’s trying to take it one day at a time.
“I would say it’s a new normal,” she said “We miss her terribly.”
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