Siblings move into Airbnb to be close to 101-year-old mom fighting COVID-19 in nursing home
This Mother's Day will be spent together and celebrating Jean O'Brien.
When Megan O'Brien and her siblings first learned that their 101-year-old mother, Jean, had tested positive for COVID-19 in her Michigan nursing home, she said "it wasn't even a question" for them: They wanted to be with her.
"I had no other single thought when I heard that she was positive other than getting home and seeing her and taking care of her and doing whatever I could to make her time better," Pat O'Brien, one of Megan's brothers, told ABC News on Friday.
"She needed us -- just like when we were little [and] we needed her," said Megan O'Brien, the youngest of Jean's nine children. "She needed us."
So, Jean O'Brien's children, now scattered around the U.S., made a decision.
They would get tested for the novel coronavirus, the more commonly known term for the virus, and if they tested negative -- and could make the trek -- they would return to Michigan to be closer to their mother.
Those who could, packed up their belongings and headed to Michigan. They even shared an Airbnb, living together under the same roof for the first time in 50 years.
Terry O'Brien, another brother, said he wouldn't be anywhere else: "We've had a lot of fun and lots of laughs. We do fine."
Now, they gather outside the window of her nursing home as often as they can, dancing to her favorite songs and singing to her.
"Seeing her and taking it in … I just started to cry. And she waved and she smiled and she even I could see her mouthing my name 'Megan.' ... She was more animated and it was just beautiful. ... It was absolutely what we were hoping we would be able to do. And bring to her," Megan O'Brien said.
Megan O'Brien said that after they had their visits with Jean, the crew usually returned home, chatted and then binged on TV shows like "Game of Thrones."
"There's no group of people that I would rather be with than them," Pat O'Brien said. "There's a lot of laughing, and talking about, you know, all the things we didn't tell our mother when we were growing up."
All of the siblings told ABC News that this Mother's Day would be extra special because they'd get to not only be with their mother, but with each other.
"Mother's Day to me this year is pretty wonderful because, a.) we just get to be around her and she means the world to all of us," said Ellen O'Brien.
"I feel so blessed," brother Tom O'Brien told ABC News on Friday.
"Knowing that we'll all be there just ... fills my heart with so much love. ... These are my favorite people," Nancy O'Brien said. "Having to be quarantined, I can't think of another group of people that I'd rather be with."