Interview with Molly Walsh

On March 16th, 2023 I sat down with Molly Walsh for her interview. Molly is a 20-year-old Business Administration student at Ithaca College. In September, 2022, her father, George Walsh, was admitted to the hospital after having frequent health problems.

With many routine checks being done on George, the doctor's could not seem to find what was the problem. He remained in the hospital for a few weeks where his health would bounce from improvement to worsening to improvement again. Molly frequently went home on the weekends to be with her mom but, due to COVID-19 protocols, she was unable to visit George in the hospital.

After a few weeks of worsening health problems with no true diagnosis, George was admitted into the ICU where he later needed to be intubated. The doctors found that his biliary tree was infected and the infection was spreading to George's other organs. He passed away peacefully on October 24, 2023.

With her father in the hospital for over a month, Molly struggled balancing school, including midterms, with the stress of having her father in the hospital. After his passing, Molly was home for one week and decided to come back to school, as she explained that she would rather be at school than be surrounded by grief at home. Although she was able to finish out the semester, it was a mental struggle and very challenging to be going to class and doing schoolwork.

In this interview, Molly shares her favorite memories with her dad such as having bonfires and talking on the patio. She was able to find support through her childhood best friend, Bryce Mazurkiewicz who also lost her father 3 months prior to Molly. She also thanked her college friends for always being there for her, even though they did not know the struggle of losing a parent.

Molly stresses her sadness in her father not being able to be there for significant milestones such as having children and graduating college, which is a struggle many young adults face losing a parent so young, but says moving forward she has gained a new perspective on how short life is and how you must make the most out of every moment.