Helping my Dad Gary & his post-hospice transition

Hi.  My name is Walter and I'm the son of Gary (referred to as "Dad" from here on).  Dad served honorably in the US Army and was stationed in Vietnam during his duty from 1965 until 1967.  Dad, as hundreds of thousands of other Vets were, was exposed to Agent Orange while serving his country.  Many years later, Dad developed Prostate Cancer, a common later day Agent Orange lasting effect.  He was treated,  and he seemed fine, until about 2 and a half years ago, when things started to go bad again.  Unbeknownst to his family (my sister and myself), it seems that his cancer had come back, working its way to his bladder.  This information was kept from us for reasons we will never know.  About 6 months ago, things began to get difficult for him, and his health very quickly deteriorated with almost half of the time since then being spent in hospitals.  This past Memorial Day Weekend, he came home for what is most likely the final time to receive Hospice care, and it was right around this time that we discovered that this had been ongoing for longer than just 6 months.

Dad has been given a "few weeks" by the hospice staff, and at the urging of one of their social workers  I've decided to give GoFundMe a try.  I have always been one to never ask for help, my philosophy being that of "there is always someone else who needs it before I do".  At this time, with Dad on the verge of his transition to a painless next life, I've decided to see what happens and try to make things a bit easier for his eventual end-of-life events and the bills which they will surely bring as well as any loose ends after he is gone.  I set a financial number as a small round number based on what these kind of events usually cost.  If we hit that goal, great.  If it goes over that goal, even better.  This Memorial Day weekend hit us hard here because it is now firmly planted as a date in Dad's final Timeline as the weekend he came home for what is most likely going to be his last time.  If any sort of help can be dropped on this family to try to make things even the slightest bit easier, then we can only hope and pray that it happens.

The last 6 months I have been shifted from my regular profession to that of a full blown home care giver, with the duties of any regular nurse.  I was able to juggle the demands of care and my own life up until a few months ago, but as things got worse, the caregiver position became that of a full-time job.  Now, with him home for hospice care, it is literally a 24/7 lifestyle.

Thanks for reading....

Here are some pics of Dad.  One was taken at his carpenter's ship in Fort Bragg, NC, back in 1967, another was him and myself in better health times during a photo exploration that we were on together, and the last one is a shot of Dad a few months back with my sister's husky who is training to be a support dog.