A daughter has spoken out about the tragic night she sent her mother an innocent joke – unaware that she had actually died.
On January 31, 2021, Maureen Branigan spent a seemingly ordinary day with her mother, Debbie Branigan, in Philadelphia.
The two had gone grocery shopping, cooked dinner, and ended the day cuddling on the sofa while watching lighthearted TV, as reported by PEOPLE.
As the evening progressed and a snowstorm rolled in, Debbie decided it was time to head home. She lived just three blocks away.
Debbie, 52, had faced health issues for years, including type 2 diabetes and kidney disease.
However, Maureen recalls that her mother had been in relatively good spirits and health that day.
Despite this, Debbie often joked about slipping and injuring herself in the snow, which prompted Maureen to text her mom shortly after she left: “Did u make it home alive lol?”
But the reply never came.
“I didn’t think twice when she didn’t respond,” Maureen, 30, told PEOPLE. “It wasn’t uncommon for her to go home, go to bed, and FaceTime me the next morning to make plans for the day. We spent every day together.”
It wasn’t until later that night, when Maureen’s fiancé walked the dog, that he noticed something was wrong. Debbie’s car was still parked outside – alongside an ambulance. He quickly alerted Maureen, who recalls feeling a creeping sense of dread.
“Immediately, I called my dad and told him to come quickly,” Maureen said. “The medics wouldn’t tell us anything, and we were stuck in limbo.”
Her fears were soon confirmed. After following the ambulance to a nearby hospital, Maureen learned her mother had passed away from cardiac arrest.
“Honestly, it wasn’t the first time I had texted her something like that. We joked morbidly pretty often,” the daughter said.
In recent months, Maureen, now a stay-at-home mom, took to TikTok to share her journey of grief.
One post in particular – a video highlighting her final text to her mom – went viral.
The video, which included a screenshot of the “Did u make it home alive lol?” message, gained over 670,000 views and hundreds of comments.
“Without a doubt, the ‘are u alive lol’ text captured a glimpse of our sense of humor,” Maureen said. “A few people in my life have even agreed—it makes sense that this was the last text I sent her.”
In a comment, Maureen added further detail, saying: “I did walk her to the car, got stuff out of the trunk and said bye as she started up the car. She went into cardiac arrest before pulling away.”
Now, nearly two years since Debbie’s passing, Maureen continues to navigate life without her. She describes the journey as non-linear but filled with lessons about love, loss, and resilience.
“Some days I cry, and other days I gossip to her as if she can still hear me and answer back,” she said. “I miss her in every moment of every day—the big and the small.”
Maureen’s story has also become a source of comfort and guidance for others coping with grief.
“Your grief is yours, no one else’s,” she said. “You might be grieving the same person as a lot of other people, but your grief is sacred. There’s no right or wrong way to grieve, and no timeline.”
Somewhat amazingly, Maureen’s comments section has been flooded by dozens of people revealing that they also went through a similar experience when messaging a loved one.
“My dad and I had been texting all day. He didn’t reply for a couple hours and I said ‘are u alive?? Lmao’ and he was not alive,” one person wrote.
A second wrote: “My last unanswered text to my dad was ‘How are you feeling?’ He in fact was not feeling great.”
