Robin Roberts' mother died just hours after the "Good Morning America" co-host left the show to take care of her own medical issues. Roberts traveled home to Mississippi and made her way through flooded and blocked roads to be with her sick mother Thursday.
Her mom, Lucimarian Tolliver Roberts, was the first African-American to head Mississippi's Board of Education. She was passionate about music and the written word. Roberts even collaborated with her mother to write a book, titled "My Story, My Song".
Robin Roberts began her medical leave a day early, announcing Thursday would be her last day on "Good Morning America" for a while.
"Some things happened at home," Roberts said. She said she wanted to rush home to Mississippi to help her ailing mother, who was 88, and her family who stayed in the Gulf Coast to ride out Hurricane Isaac.
Friday had been scheduled to be the co-anchor's last day before taking medical leave to have a bone marrow transplant to help cure her MDS, myelodysplastic syndrome.
It was emotional for co-anchors George Stephanopoulos, Lara Spencer, and Josh Elliott, and for viewers who took to Twitter making the hashtag #teamRobin a trendsetter.
Roberts' return date has not been set but filling in to help out on the morning anchor desk will be Katie Couric, Barbara Walters, the cast of "Modern Family," Kelly Ripa, Chris Rock, Rob Lowe, and Opraha Winfrey, just to name a few.
For information regarding the wrist band Roberts was wearing to promote the National Marrow Donor Program, visit http://marrow.org/Home.aspx