GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. — A Grain Valley family is mourning the loss of their loved one due to the Delta variant of COVID-19.

They said 45-year-old Tricia Jones was hesitant about getting the vaccine and then she became ill. The mother-of-two’s health quickly went downhill. She died June 9 at Research Medical Center.

Her mother, Deborah Carmichael, said Jones was hesitant to get the vaccine because she saw Carmichael get sick after her first shot of the vaccine. Now, she hope’s Jones’ legacy will convince at least one person to take the leap and get their vaccine.

“I never would have thought I would lose my daughter at 45,” Carmichael said.

Carmichael said her daughter was a light in everyone’s life. She was fun, and when she walked into a room, everyone knew it. Now, she keeps her light alive in her memories.

In the spring, Carmichael got her vaccine, but Jones wasn’t so sure, and she decided to wait.

“She was afraid of the side effects, I think. You hear a lot of horror stories. I, myself, when I had the shot, it was rough, so it scared her and freaked her out. So she didn’t want to do it. I couldn’t convince her,” Carmichael said.

Carmichael said, by April, Jones’ son caught the Delta variant at his junior high school, and both Jones and her husband got sick, too.

“After she got it, she said, ‘Mom you were right, about the shot, about masks, being diligent and all that.’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to be right. I want you to be well. That’s all that matters,'” Carmichael said.

Jones was hospitalized and on May 13 she was put on a ventilator and then died on June 9.

“I felt like, as her mom, I brought her into this world, and the most loving thing I could do if it had to come to this is usher her into the arms of the Lord. It wasn’t my choice. It wasn’t what I wanted. Everything in me was screaming, ‘No, this can’t be right. She’s only 45,'” Carmichael said.

She leaves behind two children, including 18-year-old Adriana Jones.

“She was my best friend. She was my best friend,” Adriana said.

Adriana has autism and said her mom was her greatest support. In high school, she said she was bullied a lot because of her diagnosis, and her mom was her biggest advocate. She would come to the school and work with her counselors on how to help her.

This year, Adriana graduated high school without her mom by her side. They planned to take classes together at Metropolitan Community College. She was going to take psychology classes, and her mom planned to study business.

“She was actually in the middle of helping me figure it all out for it, and now I feel lost because I don’t understand none of it,” Adriana said.

When her mom was in the hospital, her COVID-19 symptoms subsided. But she wasn’t able to get off the ventilator and wasn’t awake. Adriana said she would sit by her mother’s bed, and they would talk and read to her. They would read her daily devotionals, psalms, and even play some of her favorite music hoping to connect with her.

“There were so many days where I would just stand there next to my mom and say, ‘Wake up, mama, wake up.’ She would never wake up, and I just wish that she would. I don’t think anyone should have to go through what we went through. Especially with the variant,” Adriana said.

Her family is praying people will see Tricia’s life as a call to action to get their vaccine — if not for themselves, for the ones they love.

“Please take this seriously. You don’t want to see a family member you love go through this,” Carmichael said. “You have a way better chance of coming out OK than if you don’t.”

“I really miss you. I miss you a lot,” Adriana said.

Carmichael said she wants people to understand that the variant can be very hard on people’s bodies. She said they watched her daughter get sick very quickly.

She said nurses told her they were seeing people coming into the hospital younger and younger after not getting vaccinated. Some metro health departments tell FOX4 they are seeing younger patients getting sick as well, some of them 30 years old and younger.