In Memory of Dee Dee Shipley

Hello, my name is Wittney and I am 1 of Eddie and Dee Dee's 12 children.

Many of you know my parents are wonderful people who have done so much for so many. A little background: my parents have 12 kids, 11 of them adopted from the state of Wisconsin. They have 2 sets of siblings, 1 with 3 sisters, 1 with 2 brothers and 2 sisters, and have never given a child back.

My parents have been advocates for adoption my whole life and have truly loved their adopted children as their own. In addition, they have been extremely active within their church and community service for the past many years despite my mom's health issues.

For those who don't know my mom, here's a little background: my mom was diagnosed with diabetes at 22 months old, and fought it well into her adult life. She dealt with the challenges of the disease quietly, and did her best to overcome them.

While she was able to obtain multiple organ transplants over the course of the years to help eliminate her diabetes, the ultimate kicker was that she lost her vision during an open heart surgery. She was told she needed the heart surgery to be able to adopt more children, which she proceeded with, and then lost her vision entirely. She lived in complete blindness for the last 22 years.

We lost my mom just 2 weeks ago at the young age of 62. After nearly 2 years of fighting a superbug (reoccuring infection that wouldn't go away, but would stabilize). This alone cost close to 1.4 MILLION dollars -- from hospital stays, rehabs, medicines, procedures, you name it. My mom wasn't home for more than 2 weeks over the last 2 years because everytime she went home, she'd end up back in the hospital. So heartbreaking.

On top of that, we now have the added expense of the funeral, etc.

We appreciate any donation, even $1, and absolutely appreciate all shares. We feel sorta funny asking for donations, but, as you can imagine, there is A LOT of expense right now and my dad can only do so much, as he still has children in the home.

Every donation received will go towards my moms's medical bills. Any extra will be donated to the Wisconsin Donor Network and/or Luthern Social Services of Wisconsin. <3