Freda Ocran was a wife and mother of three who worked at Jacobi Medical Center.
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She passed away at the age of 51, one year ago Sunday.
Friends say Ocran was like a giant splash in a pond that sent ripples throughout everyone's lives at the hospital in Morris Park.
She was head nurse in the psychiatric unit, but in March 2020, as COVID-19 barreled into the Tri-State area, she refused to stay home.
On March 28th, her husband Joseph, got a call from doctors.
The call from Lincoln said, unfortunately your wife, Freda passed," Joseph Ocran said.
Ocran was the first nurse to die from COVID-19 in a New York City public hospital.
And now on the one-year anniversary of her passing, colleagues remembered how much of a champion she was.
"We should not be standing here today mourning a life, somebody who gave up herself, somebody who took care of patients just because of a lack of PPE," colleague Flandersia Jones said.
Joseph came to the U.S. from Ghana in 1988, saved money, and soon Freda joined him.
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She received her degree in 1990, all while raising three kids who say she was relentless in a positive, life-affirming way.
"Like heroes, she had a catch phrase, 'don't you know I'm the queen.' Like heroes, she had a flaw, she cared too much," Ocran's son, Kwame K. Ocran, said.
Loved ones say she was the center of many worlds and a leader with a powerful army of supporters.
"She was everyone's mother, friend, protector and that's why we've gathered here today. This is her legacy," Ocran's son, Kwame A. Ocran, said.
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