Faith in Humanity: Nurse to adopt terminally ill patient’s son

In a time when the news is dominated by all the bad things people do to each other, good deeds often go unnoticed.

Fortunately, Tricia Seaman’s act of kindness is getting the attention it deserves.

NBC’s Today shared the heartwarming story of Seaman, an oncology nurse who is in the process of becoming the legal guardian of an 8-year-old boy whose mother is suffering from terminal cancer.

Tricia Somers, 40, was hospitalized in March with pain stemming from epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, a rare vascular cancer. That is when Somers first came in contact with Seaman.

“I remember when she came into the room, it was just an overwhelming feeling I had over me. It’s really hard to understand — it was just a warmth,” Somers said. “I felt calm, I felt at peace, I felt like this woman is going to be the one who’s going to take care of me.”

Seaman was assigned to be Somers’ nurse for only one night, but they formed a bond. The nurse checked in on Seaman whenever she was on call.

Somers is a single mother with no immediate family in town. She was faced with the task of finding someone to care for her child when she passed on.

“She said, ‘I’m really glad you stopped by because I have something I need to ask you,'” Seaman, 45, recalled. “She said, ‘If I die, will you raise my son?'”

As fate would have it, Seamon and her husband were already considering adding to their family of four children.

In May, Somers was struggling to get through chemotherapy, and doctors told her she could not go home by herself. She then gave her son, Wesley, to Seamon who invited the mother and son to live with them.

“My son is well aware that when I pass on, he is welcome to stay here. And he knows that Dan and Tricia will be his guardians. They’ve explained to him that they’ll never be mommy and daddy, but they’re sure going to try to be close,” Somers said.

“They’ve answered my prayers. It’s wonderful, it’s absolutely wonderful.”