By the time he got to U.S. 84’s intersection with I-55, Heather was visibly worse and Jason headed south to the much-closer hospital in McComb. There, she was told she had sinusitis and bronchitis, and Heather was given an intravenous drip to get her fever down to 99.8 degrees. She was released at 3 a.m. Thursday.

That night, she started getting worse again with more fever, more cramping and Friday morning — Dec. 20 — Heather told Jason she felt like her stomach was ripping open.

She had an obstetrician’s appointment that morning, and when her mother came to pick her up, Heather couldn’t dress herself.

“I had to help her get dressed, and that wasn’t Heather,” Renee said. “I knew something was wrong — I thought she was going into early labor.”

It wasn’t early labor, and it wasn’t just a fever. As soon as Heather got to the obstetrician’s office, the doctor had her moved by wheel chair from Natchez Women’s Clinic to Natchez Regional Medical Center.

Heather’s blood oxygen levels were dangerously low, and she was quickly intubated and put on life support. The hospital prepped her for transport to Baptist Health Systems in Jackson.

Things didn’t look good, and Jason took Mary Frances and McKayla’s hands, leading them forcibly past the medical staff to their mother.

“I told the nurses, ‘You are getting out of my way,’” he said. “They got to kiss her on the hand and say, ‘Mommy, I love you,’ and even though she had the thing down her throat she said it back. I thought (the hospital) was going to throw me in jail, but something told me the girls needed to do it.”

Heather got to the hospital in Jackson, and finally received a diagnosis. She’d had the flu, it had become pneumonia and had progressed to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Her lungs were crystallizing.

Heather was in a medically induced coma, and would stay that way — except for a few brief, blessed minutes the next week — for the rest of her life. She was 27.

The beginning of the end came Dec. 21, when doctors told Jason they could take the baby by caesarian section with a 30 percent chance of survival. They gave Heather a zero percent chance.

“That day, I had to sign wild cards hoping that I would keep one of them,” Jason said.

Alley Marie Meng was born a month early, small but strong at 5.3 pounds, 17.34 inches and with a head full of strawberry blonde hair to match her mother’s. It was a bittersweet moment, but Jason went to keep vigil at his daughter’s side. Heather never got to hold the baby.

But one moment a few days later, Heather fluttered her eyes and her father quickly showed her a cell phone photo.