If Ebony Sequita Pack had a goal, she would not let anything stop her from achieving it. When she became pregnant while attending nursing school, she changed direction and got her nursing assistant certification instead, which allowed her to spend more time with her daughter.
She stayed focused on her plan, though. Later, she went back to school and became a licensed practical nurse, a job she loved. At her position at PowerBack, a physical rehabilitation center, she was known as a friendly, compassionate nurse who most recently attended to patients battling the coronavirus.
Ebony was keeping her sights set on the future. Her next goals were to launch her own home healthcare business and go back to school to become a registered nurse.
She expected to open her business in 2020 and had registered a business license with the City of Philadelphia under the name Best Living Home Care LLC. Other relatives were also in the nursing field, and Ebony saw this as an opportunity for them to build a family business.
“She wanted to have a thing that our family could do together, helping people and taking care of people,” her older sister Artesia Pack said.
The pandemic put those plans on hold, but she never stopped looking forward to better days with an optimistic eye. Tragically, she would not get the opportunity to continue building her future. Ebony was shot and killed on Nov. 28, 2020 in her vehicle at an intersection in Lansdale, Montgomery County. Police believe Ebony was targeted, but it’s not clear why. So far, no arrests have been made.
“She was the kindest, most giving person,” her mother Rhonda Pack-Terry said. “She never caused anyone any harm, she was the peacemaker, the anchor. She didn’t fuel the fire, she put the fires out. It breaks my heart that she died that way. She was alone.”
Ebony was born Sept. 26, 1990 in Philadelphia to Rhonda and her father Arthur Lee Long. She was Rhonda’s second child. Ebony graduated from Frankford High School in 2009, and after that, she and her family moved to Feasterville in Bucks County.
Ebony, who was called “Eb” or “Ebby,” lived her life with no regrets, Rhonda said. It wasn’t easy attending nursing school while also caring for her daughter Ava, who is now 10 years old, but she made it work.
“She knew what she wanted and she preserved,” Rhonda said. “She struggled in the beginning, but even through her struggles, she found strength. And I wasn’t going to let anything stop her. I was not going to let her give up her goal. I said I’ll do whatever you need me to do to help.”
Ebony had a particularly tight relationship with her youngest sister, Ryan Pack Livingston. Seven years apart in age, Ebony was her caretaker when their mom was at work.
“She’d wash my clothes and get me up for school,” Ryan said. “ As a teenager she’s the one I’d go to for advice. She had a unique way of making me feel like I wasn’t crazy. She always knew how to anchor me back to reality and talk me back from the edge.”
People were drawn to Ebony’s happy, bright energy. She was fun, and she loved to dance and sing — particularly gospel music.
Ebony worked at PowerBack, a physical rehabilitation center, and she “tried to be a beacon of hope for her patients,” Artesia said. She took care of rehabilitation center patients who were being treated for COVID-19 and would come home with indentations on her face from wearing N-95 masks for hours every day.
“Everyone I talked to at PowerBack said she did her job well,” Rhonda said. “She wasn’t scared of COVID and she tried to help her patients be less scared of it. She’d let them know that it’s okay, we’re going to get through this.”
“She was the most calm and collected person I know. Even when the sky was falling, she would say, ‘Look, it’s going back up!’ That’s the kind of person she was.”
Ebony left her family so many good memories, like her 30th birthday party in September. The champagne was flowing and the room was filled with green and gold balloons and “Talk Thirty to Me” decorations.
Ryan recalls a conversation she had with Ebony years ago that has stayed with her. Ryan went through a phase as a child where she was preoccupied with death and had a lot of fear around it.
“She told me, ‘It’s not about the way we die, it’s about the way we live,” Ryan said. “When I get upset and get angry that someone took my sister that way, I remember her words. Her life was too important and inspiring to dwell on the awful way it happened to her.”
In addition to her mother, siblings and daughter Ava, and the rest of her family, Ebony also leaves behind another daughter, Zinah, who is 6 years old.
The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office has announced a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in connection with Ebony’s murder. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Lansdale Borough Police Department at 215-368-1801 or the Montgomery County Detectives at 610-278-3368.
