In support of Cecilia Tebeck – Memoriam

Nastasia Tebeck is organizing this fundraiser.

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*This GoFundMe is in support of the late Cecilia Tebeck and her daughters Alexandra, Cassandra, and Nastasia Tebeck*

On January 7th, 2024, our Mom, Cecilia Tebeck, passed away from Stage 4 endometrial cancer. She was 58. We’ve been grieving tremendously, as this is the worst thing that has happened to us, after already losing our father Scott Tebeck to Stage 4 kidney cancer in 2020.

Mom battled cancer privately for a couple of years in Illinois before her health took a devastating turn last Summer. Us daughters flew back and forth from Seattle and Kansas City to provide her support, months of live-in caregiving, and love. We attended countless consultations, appointments, and procedures to explore treatment options to reduce her symptoms and improve her declining strength and mobility. After difficult trial and error and physician scheduling setbacks, she was finally eligible to have her first round of chemo in late Summer. Unfortunately, the treatment further weakened her, and she was never able to fully recover. Despite her determination to regain it by way of rehab clinics for physical and occupational therapy so she could withstand more treatment, our poor Mom hit hurdle after hurdle causing her to go back and forth to inpatient hospital care for multiple procedures and transfusions throughout the Fall.

Our plan was to get her back to our hometown of Kansas City, Missouri so she could get a second oncologist opinion for alternative treatment options, and to be surrounded by her parents, extended family, and friends for emotional support. However, in December 2023, our Mom got worse and thought she couldn’t go on any longer. We immediately flew back out to Illinois on one-way tickets to be by her side, with her remaining time uncertain.

Daily visits from us daughters and out-of-state family boosted her spirits and gave her enough strength to want to pursue getting to Kansas City after all. Despite relentless obstacles, us daughters managed to figure out all the logistics and got Mom medically transported via ambulance from Illinois to a rehab center in Kansas City. We drove 7.5 hrs behind her in separate cars, bringing her essentials along. Sadly, the next day, Mom needed to be admitted to the hospital, where she endured increasing pain and moments of joy and optimism, with loving family and friends at her side. Unfortunately, after consulting with the new oncology team, it was determined that nothing else could be done except comfort care.

We were at our Mom’s side, whether in rehab centers or hospitals every day for 5 weeks straight. We lived out of hotels and hospital rooms, were caregivers, and did everything we could to make sure Mom’s days were filled with love and comfort, despite knowing she wasn’t going to get better. Her passing was so extremely sad, but we are grateful we got to spend her final moments with her.

After she passed, we rallied and planned both her funeral and reception in less than 3 days in the middle of a snowstorm. Despite being at peace that Mom is no longer in pain, it’s still a devastating loss for us daughters (and the rest of our family and her friends). We are all grieving, exhausted, and doing our best. The last 10 months have been so hard on us, and we are now also in the process of handling Mom’s estate.

IN SUPPORT

We are sharing our story in hopes of raising money to help us daughters for the expenses we covered during this entire process. Collectively, we have spent tens of thousands of dollars on funeral expenses, flights, hotels, Lyfts, rental cars, medical transportation ambulance, meals, extended dog daycare/boarding services while away, each of us taking extended time off work, covering medical bills, and being Mom’s primary support, as other loved ones couldn’t travel as easily.

If you know us, you know we are resilient, strong women, but the past few years of our lives have been the hardest ones we’ve ever experienced. Between ongoing family health crises, devastating breakups, multiple moves, and juggling stressful, full-time work to support ourselves—we are officially in our grief era.

SOME ADDITIONAL CONTEXT

MOM / CECILIA

From 2016 to 2020, our Mom took care of our Dad while he underwent multiple cancer treatments and medical procedures. While deeply grieving his passing, she handled his financial affairs and managed the family home in Illinois.
Throughout 2021 and 2022, she regularly visited Kansas City to support her elderly parents’ ongoing appointments, as well as helped Allie relocate from Illinois to Kansas City
In 2023, her health started to rapidly decline as her cancer progressed

OUR FAMILY

We lost our Dad to kidney cancer in October 2020 at 55 yrs old
We lost our Uncle unexpectedly and we almost lost our Grandpa in 2021
Allie and Cassie attended the 2024 Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl Championship Parade, where a mass shooting broke out. While escaping a frantic crowd they fell multiple times, almost got trampled, hopped a fence, and managed to get out safely, thankfully sustaining only minor injuries.

ALEXANDRA (ALLIE)

Due to the stress of our Mom’s condition in December 2023, Allie got Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, a form of shingles that caused Bell’s Palsy (partial face paralysis). We rushed her to the hospital where she got an MRI, a CT scan, and almost got a spinal tap to rule out a stroke or any further damage. She is thankfully okay, but is still healing. She continues to attend appointments with a neurologist, psychologist, and acupuncturist to treat her stress-induced condition.
In 2020, Allie left living in California to be with our parents in Illinois as our Dad’s health started to decline. After he passed, she continued living with our Mom for several months, working remotely, until her job required all employees to work in-office which prompted her to relocate to Kansas City.

CASSANDRA (CASSIE)

In 2021, shortly after our Uncle’s passing and our Grandpa’s health scare, Cassie suffered severe, debilitating vertigo in Seattle that sent her to the hospital via ambulance, where she received an MRI and CT scan to rule out a possible stroke. She recovered after several follow-up exams.
In 2022, she was part of the first wave of tech layoffs, later spending several months of 2022 and 2023 as a live-in caregiver to her sister Nastasia and mother. The accumulation of stress from grief, family matters, isolating job predicament, as well as repeatedly being sexually harassed and stalked by a neighbor caused her months of anxiety attacks.
In 2023, Cassie became Mom’s Medical Power of Attorney and Primary Contact. She took daily back-to-back calls from physicians, nurses, and staff with updates on our Mom’s condition. She also had the difficult task of transitioning a loved one into hospice care.

NASTASIA

In 2021, Nastasia became a single dog mom after an extremely difficult breakup with a long-term, domestic partner, causing her a second move that year. She also suffered from reactive airway disease (RAD) for over a month.
In 2022, she severely broke her finger on her dominant hand, to which Cassie became her and her dog Jackson’s live-in caregiver for two months while healing. Nastasia had to go on short-term medical leave, had two surgeries, and almost a year of physical hand therapy. As a designer and illustrator, this left her devastated and wondering if she’d ever gain full function back. Later that Summer, she too was affected by tech layoffs. The resulting stress caused her to get a painful bout of shingles that sent her to the hospital twice.
As of 2024, Nastasia is now managing our Mom’s estate while facing changing work requirements and possible relocation

Mom’s cancer battle was heartbreaking and intense. The amount of new information we had to quickly learn, process, accept, and make decisions on was emotionally exhausting. We’re taking it day by day, as we attempt to readjust to our new norm without our parents.

While no amount of money can cure the heartache and grief we have endured from losing our Mom, we would be extremely appreciative of any contribution to help support us in getting back on our feet. All money raised will be split between each daughter.

Thank you in advance.

With love,

Alexandra, Cassandra, & Nastasia Tebeck

Cecilia Ann Tebeck Obituary

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