After chiseling away at his classes for more than 10 years, Robert “BB” Wagstaff was set to earn his bachelor’s degree in accounting this year.
He took pride in his grades and worked full-time. He once tried doing both full-time, but wasn’t satisfied when his grades dropped, said his mother, Audrey Wagstaff.
Enrolled at Texas A&M University San Antonio, he had one more course to go this summer. But Wagstaff died April 10 at Northeast Baptist Hospital from COVID-19, one of the first such deaths in the community.
University officials announced Friday they would award his degree posthumously. His uncle, ReShard Wagstaff, plans to accept it during a rescheduled Sept. 25 graduation ceremony.
“He still tried until the end, until he just couldn’t anymore,” Audrey Wagstaff said of her only child through tears on Friday. “To hear that my baby gets to still get his degree means so much to me. He worked so hard for it,”
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Wagstaff embodied the work ethic and dedication of many A&M San Antonio students, said University President Cynthia Teniente-Matson in the announcement.
“Robert’s passing so close to completing his degree was a true tragedy,” she said. “We’re honored to include him in our graduating class, and we extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to his family. He earned this, and we’re proud to claim him as a Texas A&M-San Antonio graduate.”
Wagstaff graduated from Southwest High School and earned two associates degrees in business and accounting from St. Phillip’s College.
Audrey Wagstaff was a single mother since her son’s birth. The two were close. He lived with her, paid her bills, stayed out of debt and saved for his future — he wanted to travel and eventually start a family of his own. .
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“God gave me the perfect son. I didn’t need another one. He got it right the first time,” she would say.
He was good to everyone around him, Audrey Wagstaff added. Even when he was sick, nurses told her he was remarkably polite.
“My son was such a good person. Everybody said it, not just me. He was kind, he was giving, he was helpful, he was a sweetheart.”
In mid-March, A&M San Antonio moved all classes online and Wagstaff hardly left the house but continued to work at Wells Fargo, his mother said. The last week of March he began filling sick but couldn’t get a COVID-19 test from his primary doctor and a clinic he visited a couple days apart. On April 3, she found him in his room wearing one sock and too tired to put on the other. She got him to an emergency room. He died a week later.
Audrey Wagstaff has tested negative three times for the virus. Suddenly alone, she has struggled to understand her son’s death. He had diabetes, but she has read about COVID patients with diabetes who recovered.
“I am so glad they all got to go home but I just wish one more was added (to recovery numbers),” she said. “I bet everybody who lost someone to COVID is saying the same thing.”
People should do everything they can to prevent getting the virus, she said, adding, “Take care of yourself so your mother is not crying.”
Krista Torralva covers several school districts and public universities in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Krista, become a subscriber. Krista.Torralva@express-news.net | Twitter: @KMTorralva
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