Though they had the same name and initials, oncology nurse Tricia Seaman and single mother Tricia Somers couldn’t have been more different.
Seaman was married at 21, had four kids, worked part-time as a nurse, and loved to cook.
Somers was free-spirited, spent most of her adult life single, didn’t have a set schedule for raising her son, and loved fast food. Yet, despite their differences, these women taught each other a great deal and changed each others’ lives forever.
The two met when Seaman was serving as Somers’ nurse.
Somers knew there was something special about Seaman the moment they met.
“Before she even said anything, I just felt comfort. It was almost like somebody just put a warm blanket on me,” Somers told CBS News eight years ago. “I’ve never felt anything like that before or any other connection with anybody else.”
Seaman’s love for her job at the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania hospital and her care for others was evident in her angelic-like aura.
And Seaman’s special touch was going to be needed, as Somers had just found out that her cancer was terminal.
Though the two women had only known each other for about three weeks, Somers somehow knew that Seaman was trustworthy and blurted out a big request: “Can you take my son? Will you raise him if I die?”
Somers came to live in Harrisburg after leaving an abusive relationship, and both of her parents passed away, so she had no one to leave her son to.
Coincidentally, Seaman, who already had four children, had been trying to conceive again but was told by doctors that it could adversely affect her health. So, she and her husband had already started the process to become foster parents.
She knew that the situation had been handcrafted by God and talked to her husband about adopting Somers’ 8-year-old son Wesley.
“We need to try to help this woman,” Seaman told her husband Dan, according to TODAY. “We just need to follow whatever it is God wants us to do here.”
The Seamans decided to take Somers and her son into their home so they could spend the rest of Somers’ life together.
Not only were these two women the answer to each others’ prayers but they formed an incredible bond that changed them both.
“Learning to live under the same roof was nothing short of a miracle. This would be like mixing oil and water right? Interestingly enough, God has a beautiful way of molding and shaping lumps of clay into a beautiful masterpiece,” Seaman said on her website for her book “God Gave Me You.”
Through this cohabitation, Seaman learned that sitting down to rest and letting the dishes sit in the sink wasn’t going to do any harm.
She learned to enjoy milkshake runs, late-night chats, Walmart trips, reading the messages on Dove chocolate wrappers which she never seemed to notice before she met Somers.
Seaman said that Somers showed her how to stop and cherish the little moments in life. Somers also learned a thing or two from her new friend. She benefited from having a new schedule and some consistency in her life in the Seaman household. She was also happy that her son had more parental structure in their new home.
It wasn’t long before Somers passed away, leaving custody of Wesley to the Seamans who, now at 16-years-old, refers to them as his parents.
Wesley says he is grateful that his mom made the decision to ask Seaman to take care of him. And Seaman says that meeting Somers was a true gift to her.
“We learned from each other. We entered this journey together to give Wesley a home when Trish went to heaven. I gained far more than that, and I believe she did too. We gained family, forever family. I miss her every day,” Seaman said.
“She is with us, in her son, her memory, it’s all around us. Someday, we will be together again. Trish knew Jesus as her Savior and we will all spend eternity together with Him. The last words I spoke to her on this earth were, ‘It’s not goodbye, it’s I’ll see you later,’… until then Trish.”
Learn more about Seaman and Somers’ fateful story in the video below.
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