A former high school teacher in Wilmington, North Carolina, had a bucket list item she wanted to check off while in hospice care: reconnect with her former student, Michael Jordan.
Ms. Etta taught Jordan at Emsley A. Laney High School over 40 years ago. While a patient at Lower Cape Fear LifeCare, a hospice service in Wilmington, Ms. Etta spoke about her favorite students and memories. Jordan's name kept coming up and she shared that she wanted to hug him one last time. The practice attempted to contact Jordan but wasn't successful at first.
One day, a LifeCare social worker, Wendy, received a call from an unknown number who asked: "Is this Ms. Etta?" Jordan was on the other end of the phone. Wendy proceeded to drive to Ms. Etta and set up a video call for the two to reconnect.
"They laughed, reminisced, picked at each other, and shared a moment that brought tears to everyone in the room," the facility wrote on its Instagram page last week. "A memory her family will carry with them forever."
A photo of the phone showed Jordan smiling while on the call with Ms. Etta.
Jordan grew up in North Carolina and graduated in 1981 from Laney, where he was famously left off the varsity basketball team as a sophomore. In 2019, he donated over $1.1 million to the school, half of which went to the athletic department, according to ABC's Wilmington affiliate.
Seven years later, the Chicago Bulls legend shared a heartwarming moment with his former teacher on a memorable video call.
