‘MAMA BEAR’

Georgia Mom Dies After Severe Allergic Reaction From Fire Ant Bites

“Cathy [Weed] always had a smile on her face. She was always just so cheerful,” her friend said.

The family of a Georgia woman who died over the weekend suspect a severe allergic reaction she got after stepping in a pile of fire ants led to her death, WSBTV reported. According to a Facebook post from 2018, Cathy Weed was “highly allergic to fire ants” and carried an EpiPen with her at all times. On Saturday, fire ants bit her to such an intense degree that she died before being able to administer her medicine, relatives said. “Cathy always had a smile on her face. She was always just so cheerful,” friend Zuhera Waite shared. Weed leaves behind a 15-year-old son, whose baseball team coach said “his mom was everything to him.” The Medical Examiner’s Office is still investigating her official cause of death. The community has raised nearly $9,000 in support of Weed’s family on a Meal Train page. “We tragically lost a very special friend and Mama Bear yesterday,” the page read. “Please keep her family in your thoughts.”