“I know I wanted to go home to teach. I wanted to be with the kids I taught,” Phillip Belone said. “In fact, he was teaching oxygen when he would have been in the hospital, but his condition got to the point where he couldn’t breathe physically.”
Philamena Belone returned to the hospital nearly two weeks later, on Nov. 28, her brother said. A week later, a fan was put on a last-ditch effort to save his life.
But on Dec. 11, the formerly healthy 44-year-old died at Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque. He leaves three children and a grandson, as well as his parents, brother and sister.
The Belone family and many of the students the teacher served are part of the Navajo nation in New Mexico.
I wanted each student to feel special
Philamena Belone gave heart to her students and did her best to get to know them at her level, her brother said.
“The toughest students were given to my sister,” Belone said with a laugh. “She taught the kids that everyone gave up, but her. She never gave up on anyone.”
Belone was a teacher at Wingate Elementary School in Fort Wingate, New Mexico, about two hours west of Albuquerque. His school confirmed his death in a statement to CNN.
“His smile radiated throughout his classroom and his laughter echoed through the hallways,” said principal Eric North. “He always had a kind word for others who came his way, whether in the cafeteria, on the buses or in the playground. His energy and sense of humor were contagious.”
During the pandemic, Philamena Belone taught virtual classes, her brother said. However, many of his Navajo students did not have reliable internet access, he said.
As a result, Belone said her sister would drive every two hours each week and leave class materials at school for her students.
He customized the materials for each, he said. He created paper copies for some students, while others had laptops but no internet, so he made them flash drives that contained the material. Other students could only connect online from their parents ’phones at night, so they worked nights to meet their needs.
“It provided arts and crafts, small personal notes and specific memories for each child,” Belone said. “She went further by teaching her children through phone calls, the Internet when she was available, and creating hard copies for all of her courses during the week.
Belone estimates her sister worked 70 hours a week. He did it because he loved students and wanted to make everyone feel special, his brother said.
“A lot of the kids I worked with didn’t have the best education, so I would always go to another level personally to relate to them and be an older sister or aunt to them,” she said.
“My sister also had some difficult circumstances in her life, so she had a special connection with children with behavior problems,” Belone said. “She would love to connect with the kids and make them happy. That was her reward.”
She went from being healthy to fighting for her life
Philamena Belone began to feel unwell on Nov. 12, her brother said. Symptoms were minimal at first, but a persistent cough landed her in the emergency room. Doctors diagnosed him with Covid-19 and pneumonia.
The doctors gave him oxygen and he stayed there for three days, but his longing to return to teaching was strong, his brother said.
He left home with an oxygen tank and a mask, pushing to continue teaching until the end of the school term, his brother said. His youngest son had lived with his mother, but left home while his mother was in her forties.
Two weeks later, she had gotten worse and was taken back to Albuquerque Hospital.
Philamena Belone was a runner and a person who loved to exercise. His brother found it amazing that they had to put him in a fan on Dec. 6, he said.
The family also understood what the fan meant: Belone lost her aunt and uncle to the virus after they had both been on fans, she said.
They thought Philamena Belone would be fine. “Before that, I was a healthy, vibrant, good soul that we never expected to be in this situation,” Belone said.
He continued to fight and reassure his family that he would be fine, he said. Philamena Belone never wanted anyone to “hurt her” and was a very private person, she said.
“We didn’t know such a dramatic circumstance was reached until she was physically admitted for the second time,” Belone said. “I had the impression it would still go well and the symptoms weren’t that bad. He hid it from us all very well.”
The family said doctors found blood clots in their lungs and found it had a collapsed lung. He also suffered from kidney failure and required dialysis.
“I saw her at her worst, but I understood that she was struggling with her heart and was willing to rest,” he said. Ultimately, her family made the heartbreaking decision to get her out of the fan.
“After making the decision … I was literally asleep,” Belone said. “I had no sensation in my body. I didn’t know if I was dreaming or I didn’t know what was real.”
He had a “big contagious vibrant smile”
When she was not in the classroom, Philamena Belone liked to ride horses, hunt, do crafts, and travel. He also loved to dance and spend time teaching his students some moves, his brother said.
But most of all, “he loved kids,” his brother said.
Philamena Belone was a devoted and loving mother of three children.
“Her children are absolutely devastated by the loss of their beautiful sweet mother,” Belone said.
Mekaile Belone, 27, Quionna, 22, and Dion Dotson, 19, now lack the love and support of their mother. He also left behind a four-year-old granddaughter, Mila.
But what he will miss most about Belone from his sister is his smile with his “beautiful dimple on his right cheek.”
“Everyone will miss their big contagious and vibrant smile. Everyone will miss their laugh,” he said. “What I will miss most about her is her willingness to make people happy at all costs.”
Belone said he knows he is not alone in the loss he and his family have suffered as a result of the pandemic.
“Philamena’s story is not unique,” Belone said. “We should focus on all the stories, all the hundreds of thousands of people, all the millions of people in our country who have been affected by that.”
In any case, Belone hopes people can learn from her sister’s life of service and donation.
“She would have wanted everyone to love and not be judged, to see the best of everyone and to do everything she could to make the world a better place,” she said. “That was his legacy.”
CNN’s Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.