EXCLUSIVE: Former Prisoner's Dying Wish Granted
MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) - Seven days after the Florida Parole Commission allows the conditional release of a 27-year-old woman who's dying from cancer, that woman fulfills a final wish before goes home to Indiana.
In a CBS4 news exclusive, our cameras followed Betsie Gallardo and her adoptive mother Jessica Bussert as they were able to make a journey at sunset to the ocean.
"We're at the Beach," said Gallardo. "I haven't done this in a long time." We met Galardo and Bussert at a parking lot at 46th St. and Collins Ave. and followed them down a boardwalk and on to the sand just as the sun was going down and on the final night before they were to go home to Indiana.
It was a special journey. Bussert says Gallardo is in the last stages of cancer and may have only weeks to live.
"I felt the cold water on my feet," said Gallardo as she walked in to the ocean. "It was so peaceful. I am excited, very excited. My Mom said I could come here. I love the ocean."
Gallardo had received a five year prison term in 2008 after biting a police officer in Naples. Bussert said Gallardo received a severe sentence because she was HIV positive. But the Florida Parole Commission released her on January 5th to she could spend her dying days with her adoptive family. It was a conditional release. She will remain under house arrest.
On Friday night, she appreciated every second by the sea.
"It means freedom," Gallardo said. "The sea means freedom. One simple word. Freedom. And it's so peaceful. I see way beyond the ocean. This is God's creation. These waves are everything. The ocean is the last place I want to be. When it's over with, it's where I want to be. I want my body in the ocean."
"So many people fought for this miracle to happen," said Bussert, "and so many helped. Not only do I get to see my child but I get to take her home. And she can be with our family and all of us. This is special, that we can share time with her."
Gallardo has been staying at a hospice in Miami-Dade since her release from the Broward Correctional Facility.
Bussert said Gallardo bit the officer in Naples while she was being arrested on a child neglect charge after leaving her boyfriend's child home alone for more than 30 minutes. That charge was later dropped.
Four months into her sentence for the assault on the officer, Gallardo was diagnosed with gall bladder cancer. It has since spread to her liver, lungs and ovaries and doctors say her condition is terminal.
Gallardo has had a difficult life.
Gallardo, who was born in the U.S. HIV positive, grew up in Haiti after her father abandoned her, her sister and mother there. When their mother died, the two sisters were forced to live on the streets.
"Betsie's first ten years were full of abuse, physical, sexual, starvation. She grew up in the poorest slum this side of the planet," said Bussert.
"Now she can go home happy," said Bussert. "Happy that her last memory is of such beauty on Miami Beach."
"I haven't seen the ocean since I was taken to prison," said Gallardo. "This is very, very special. I will never forget this trip. Never."
