Darlisa Nesbitt was 51 years old. Born and raised in Brooklyn, she worked for the MTA for more than half her life. The train operator seemed to have three passions in life: family, church, and minimal, but affordable jewelry, which she sold in her free time. She was a soloist in her church, and was the kind of person who posts memes about choir practice on social media.

Le Cheryl Kenner-Edwards met Nesbitt more than two decades ago. She’s also a train operator and they met when they were both working on the A/ C line.

“She was really very nice, very very nice. She would tell me funny stories about her father being a preacher in the church and everything. And I loved her glasses, always she always had the nicest glasses,” Edwards said.

Edwards’ grandson was born the same year as Nesbitt’s daughter, who’s 14 years old now. They liked to joke that one day the two would get married and they could be in-laws.

“I always told her yeah, your daughter is going to marry my grandson,” she said.

Nesbitt lived in Bed-Stuy in an apartment below her mother, Doris who is 88 years old. Her husband, Nesbitt’s father, died years ago, so as the only child of four left in New York, she took care of her mother, running errands, picking up dinner. Doris said since her daughter died earlier this month, Nesbitt’s friends have been reaching out.

“My phone rings constantly, even her friends that have moved out of town and heard about it, they called to see how I was doing and I really appreciate that so much,” Doris said.

Doris remembers how much her daughter loved her job, “she enjoyed it so much, she was always talking about driving a train.” The first time her daughter pulled into the station near her home, Doris raced out to get a picture. “I lived one block from the station. She was on the J line, I took a picture of her coming into the station, oh my, it was just so beautiful,” she said.

Doris says when her daughter got the coronavirus last month, everything just happened so fast. She was admitted to one hospital, and then quarantined in another. They could only talk over the phone. And five days later she was dead.

“I just can’t say how much I’m going to miss her because she was really a precious daughter, and jeez it hurts so bad, but I know she’s in a better place now,” Doris said.