Curtis Reese Memorial

The Situation
When Curtis, Missy and Joshua hiked up Black Mountain at a breakneck speed, little did they know this was their last adventure. Not just 38 days later, Missy heard those dreaded words, “Your husband has cancer.” Not just any cancer! Curtis never did anything halfway, not even this. He had a rare, fast growing, aggressive cancer called liposarcoma that invaded his abdomen. In a matter of only 54 days at Stanford Medical Center, Missy, their 14- year- old son Joshua and his stepsons Nolan and Cole sent Curt on his final quest. Despite a valiant effort, all of Curtis’s strength and determination could not conquer this enemy. His body had lost the fight.

The Back Story-why the financial need?
In 2002, Missy experienced a devastating fall at her workplace and has been caught in the merry go round of surgery and rehabilitation since. Her spine, from top to bottom has not yet healed well enough for seek employment so has reluctantly been on disability. Curtis, with his carpentry and leadership skills, had been a foreman off and on for various companies. They tried moving to Idaho for awhile but ended up back in Tuolomne County. On his way to work in the bay area one day, a driver pulled in front of his motorcycle and he flipped over the car, sustaining serious injury to his legs. It is only hard work and determination on his part and answered prayer on God’s part that saved his legs. After two years of extremely painful therapy, Curtis was only able to keep working periodically while also caring for Missy after yet another spine surgery.

The Request
Because of these challenges, Missy and Josh are in dire straits. Since Curtis was in the army for four years and a ranger for two of them, Missy was advised to go to the VFW, seeking financial assistance for Curtis’s cremation and help with her living expenses for herself and Joshua. Strangely, even though he bravely served his country as an Army Ranger, NO HELP WAS AVAILABLE. Her adult sons Nolan and Cole are sacrificially planning to uproot their lives and move back home to help raise Joshua and provide for them. However, seeking employment is typically a time-consuming endeavor. Thus, the reason for this GoFundMe.

How You Can Help
Missy has been through hell on earth and now must face the reality that life does move on and life is expensive. She needs help paying for Curtis’s final wishes in being cremated and help in just the basic cost of living until she and her boys can get their feet underneath them. Because of life’s circumstances, they were not able to build up a savings, so she has nothing to fall back on. She intends and has already begun to apply for every governmental assistance that she qualifies for, but the wheels turn slowly. They are so appreciative of even a small donation to help make ends meet.