Susan Moran couldn’t leave the country to go to her mother’s funeral in England.

Moran moved to the United States in the mid-nineties with her husband and kids. They tried to get a green card at that time, but when her mom died, Moran still didn’t have the  paperwork necessary to leave the U.S.

In May 2013, she was diagnosed with gallbladder cancer. Four rounds of chemotherapy didn’t eliminate it and it spread. She was given four months to live.

When Susan Moran visited the StoryCorps booth in 2013, her son Sean asked her how she wanted to spend the remainder of her life. “I’ve got an amazing family,” she said, “that won’t let me go anywhere easily. That’s for sure.”

“I don’t want to go,” Susan continued. “Too many things to see.”

At the time of the 2013 interview, Moran had just received a temporary green card, which enabled her to leave the country for the first time in 20 years, to travel to England to see her father, and her mother’s grave.

As soon as she got back from that trip and touched down at the airport, she was in immense pain. She was driven straight from the airport to the hospital.

Susan Moran died January 28, 2014.

A little over a year after her death, her kids came back to the StoryCorps booth with their dad - Kailey Povier, 35, Liam Moran, 30, and Sean Moran, 32.

“She had a very sweet voice,” Sean Moran says, after re-listening to their earlier interview.

Liam says their mom didn’t consider her own feelings enough. She was always too concerned with everyone else, and not worried enough about her own well-being, he says.

Sean Moran remembers the parties the family used to throw at their house. One time, in particular stood out in his mind: His mom’s sister Jenny was visiting and they put “Crazy” by Cee-Lo Green on repeat. They’d dance like mad and when it was over, they’d hit repeat and start dancing again, trying to get others to dance with them the whole while.

“You’d think that it would be quiet,” Kailey says, about her mom’s last days. “But it was a full house of family and friends.” Kailey remembers a few days before her mom died, they were passing around a box of chocolates. Her mom could barely communicate, but she managed to lift a finger and point at the nurse. Everyone agrees: That was there mother’s way of making sure her family offered the nurse some chocolate too.

“She was always thinking of other people,” Kailey says. “We need mom here to help get us through this.”