It is with sadness I share the news that my beautiful, intelligent, funny, friendly and sometimes exasperating mother, Nancy Durham, has been diagnosed with the double whammy of congestive heart failure and metastatic lung cancer. She has made the decision to forego treatments to prolong her life.

Those if you who know Nancy are aware that her last decade has been remarkably difficult. A serious car accident, a broken femur leading to rheumatoid arthritis,a bout each of colon and breast cancer along with various other ailments have left her with wear and tear.  It spite of all that, she continued to maintain her sweet apartment, adopted a funny little cat, kept informed and politically active, and never stopped being a generous and loving friend, grandmother, aunt, sister and mother.

 Unfortunately, this latest diagnosis was a long time coming after a couple of hospitalizations depleted her Medicare coverage.  Without secondary long term care coverage, she’s been forced to apply for Medicaid.  For the time being she is staying at Wellbridge of Novi, receiving round the clock care at market rate while we await Medicaid approval for hospice care.

If you know how Medicaid works, you probably understand why we need your help.

Although she worked tirelessly for 3 decades as a special education paraprofessional in Farmington Public Schools, her pension and Social Security income falls far short of her current needs. She dreads the thought of losing her home and hopes to rally so she can rest in her own bed again.

I want my mom to spend her final weeks/months worry free, knowing she is loved and not alone.  The goal of this GoFundMe campaign is to try to raise as much as possible to alleviate her financial worries, provide funding to keep her apartment, rehome Autumn the cat, pay for end of life and travel expenses so her granddaughter and I can visit as often as possible before she is taken from us.  I’d like for her to have an easy time of it for a change.

Any amount will help Nancy know that her community has her back.  Whether you can donate or not, if you knew my mom, I’m sure she gave you a laugh and something good to remember her by.



Thank you, 
Nancy’s daughter, Dawn and family