Saving My Angel, One Dime At A Time!

Hi there, my name is Angelica. My family and I are asking for your help to save our Aunt Linda, for the rest of her life! We’re always telling her to “just keep fighting”, and let us worry about the rest, but let’s be real, there’s no amount of money in the world that will ever be enough! We’re asking for this money to help her pay off any medical bills currently outstanding, and any upcoming bills or copays in the foreseeable future. This woman is the definition of a walking angel. I’m talking, sent straight from God himself, type of woman. She’s never drank, never smoked, never done a single drug, never been kissed, still a virgin, type of pure. She’s spent most of her life raising children that weren’t hers, and she made sure we all had a life that we could remember. Unfortunately, my grandmother took her own life when my mom was only 9, so my Great Aunt Linda stepped up and helped raise my mom, and her 2 older sisters; Connie, Tara, and my mom is Shelley. Later on down the road my grandfather ended up meeting someone and having another baby girl, but her mother sadly lost her life during labor. Welcome to the family, Chrissi! Linda again, stepped up and helped as much as she could with my aunt Chrissi, until my grandfather met my Nanny, (who he is still happily married to!) Anyways, back to Aunt Linda! During this entire time, my Aunt Linda never took time off to hang out with friends, or tried to make a life of her own; she was always too busy taking care of 4 girls! I guess I should’ve mentioned she was only in high school when she started taking on the responsibilities of the 3 girls. Can you imagine?! She even shared a room with my mom for many, many years! This woman was nothing less than dedicated to her job as a mother to those three girls. Connie, Tara, Shelley, and Chrissi will forever be grateful for the time, and efforts Linda spent, and continues to spend on them, in their lives. Eventually, all of the girls grew up and got married, but Aunt Linda just never was interested in meeting people or going out. So, she worked. But when my mother and her sisters started having kids, Aunt Linda found a whole new love. She was always one of the first people at the hospital, and one of the first persons each girl called during labor! She was now, a newfound “grandmother”. When my mom had me in 1991, we were living with my Aunt Linda and Unlce Bobby, that’s her older brother; of course I loved them so much! Exactly a year and 3 days later, my brother was born into the same house, and can you guess who his favorite person was?? I think you guessed it, my Aunt Linda! This woman adored us so much and although we didn’t always have much, we felt like we had the world with her love. I remember finding out that my brother slept in a dresser drawer for awhile as a newborn because we didn’t have a crib for him to come home to. But let me tell ya, anytime you tell this story, my Aunt Linda quickly says she put “so many blankets” in there so it felt like a real bed, and she made sure she covered the edges so he couldn’t hurt himself. I mean, how cute is she?! When my family and I moved out of my Aunt Linda’s house, things weren’t the same. We missed her, and our uncle Bobby, so we started going to have sleepovers at their house. At first it was only an every other weekend kind of thing, as we waited for my dad to not show up on his scheduled visitations, but then Linda put her foot down and it quickly became an every weekend thing. Either she was coming to our house, or we were going to hers! It was always the best time. I wish I could go back to the days of those press on nails from Walmart, the excitement of walking into blockbuster, (just to rent “Grease” for the 32nd Friday in a row ), Pizza-Inn on Friday and Cici’s pizza Saturday before going to hang out at aunt Connie’s house. She is, and has always been SO genuine and giving. She taught me how to bait a hook, how to stay away from strangers, and most importantly, how to love. There aren’t enough words to describe her or the amount of joy she brings to my life. I now have two kids of my own and she has continued to carry on this ritual of our weekend sleepovers. Of course, we split weekends with my brother, his two beautiful kids, and his wife; but we sure do love our time with her. I now have taken you through over 40 years of my Aunt Linda’s life, yet I still don’t feel like I’ve done her justice in the sense of how she made us feel, or the things she’s done for all of us. The kind of person she is, the love she shares, and the purity that radiates from her, makes you want to be a better person. “I found out this morning that I have cancer. I get a biopsy July 8th, I may get chemotherapy before the biopsy. Don't know what is next. It's really big and they may start chemotherapy instead of removal, or whole breast removal. It is not looking good. I may die. I am scared. I love y’all.” July 3rd, 2019 was by far the ABSOLUTE WORST day of our life. My Great Aunt Linda sent me a text, (yes, a freaking text) that she has cancer. It’s stage 4 metastatic breast cancer that had already spread to her lungs, and lymph nodes. Our family is not one to just lay down and take ANYTHING lightly, so after a big freak out, and many many tears, cries, screams, and pleadings with God, we all sought out the best doctors, hospitals, and all other options we had to ensure the best treatment and care for our Aunt Linda. My mom and uncle Bobby, along with Aunt Linda, actually ended up picking a team of doctors of the Mayo Clinic at Richardson Methodist. After consulting with them, and a couple of others, the three of them felt they were truly the perfect fit for her. After 4 rounds of chemo, the lymph node cancer and lung cancer started to shrink. Her Dr’s only ordered 4 rounds, so after that she started chemo pills. Fortunately, we can say that the team of doctors we chose, were a great fit for us because our Aunt Linda is still with us today, fighting, and her cancer is STILL shrinking. Unfortunately, her bills, and debt are not shrinking. While she’s trying to live her best life, and enjoy what she has left, she’s constantly worried about her debt and the copays to come each year to continue treatment. I just hate to see her worry about something like that. She’s constantly telling me how many payments she’s made on each of the medical bills, credit cards, or how much shes put away for next years copay, and the years after that. It always makes me so proud of her, don’t get me wrong, but it makes me sad at the same time. She should be living her best life, free of fear, doubt, or worry! Of course she’s fearful, and she has really bad days, sometimes more bad days than good, and sometimes more good than bad on other weeks, but that’s okay. I would just love to take away the stress and burden of money for this angel of mine. I’m sorry I’ve made this so long, and if you’ve read this far, THANK YOU! I hope you enjoyed getting to know this beautiful soul. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask, I could talk about her until I’m blue in the face! She is so deserving of this, and more than appreciative for anything donated. Thank you again for taking your time to read this, God bless you and your family! Xoxo, Her biggest fan