Help Us Bury Our Grandma!

Yesterday, we received the very sad news that my Grandma, Francisca Orta, passed away.  She had a heart attack and died unexpectedly by herself.  There is much guilt and emotion attached to that.  There is some comfort in knowing she has joined her son, my uncle, who passed away only six months ago. (You can read her obituary here.)

My Grandma was one of the biggest followers of God that you would meet.  She tried to help people the best she could and taught me and my sister how to read using the Bible.  My mom died when I was very little.  Much of my childhood was spent bouncing around from house to house, but my Grandma ended up taking me and my little sister in.  We lived with her for a while so it is really important for me to try to repay that and help take care of her final wishes.

My Grandma did not have a life insurance policy so the burden of the costs is being distributed among her grandchildren.  She was very against cremation for religious beliefs so we are trying our best to honor her wishes and provide a burial where she will be laid to rest next to her beloved son, my Uncle Miguel.

We are trying our best to give our Grandma a proper funeral.  Funds are extremely tight for everyone right now so I am doing anything I can to try to raise money.  My wife is planning on doing a bake sale and we are going to try to have a garage sale.  My wife and I are trying to figure out a way to come up with our obligated portion...an estimated $1,000.  I did write the GoFundMe goal as $15,000 though...to help cover the rest of the funeral if at all possible.

My wife and I have a one year old son and both of us work, but we live paycheck to paycheck.  We did have some savings up until last month, but our beloved Collie mix of nine years got sick out of the blue (sudden violent seizures every five-ten minutes) and we had to make the very difficult decision to put him to sleep after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  (You can read his story here.) 

We had been planning on going on our very first vacation this month (first weekend of September), but we used all that money AND all of our savings trying to save, then euthanize, our beloved dog only four short weeks ago.  I feel uncomfortable sharing all of this personal information, but I feel it's necessary so you can understand our situation.

The family needs a deposit of $4,200 by Sunday to give to the funeral home.  My wife and I personally are supposed to come up with at least $280 by Sunday.  As you can imagine, that is not always easy to do in just a few days.

After that deposit, the family will be responsible for the remaining $10,800 balance split up between most of the grandkids. My personal portion will be an estimated $700-$800.  We will have three months to come up with it. 

I ask for you to please, look into your heart and try to help us out if you are able.  This was my ONLY grandparent I ever had.  All the others died before I was born.

My family has seen a lot of death, heartache, and loss this year.  My uncle died, my wife's godfather died, our dog died (he was our first "baby"), there have been medical issues, and the list of hardships continue.

There have been many struggles this year and 2014 has truly been the worst year of mine and my wife's life.

I'm sure many of you can relate to the loss of a beloved grandparent so please help me lay mine to rest.  I am very grateful for any contribution (even prayers), and I thank you for reading my story.

Sincerely, Andres Barron

***Any money raised up to $1,000 will go towards my responsibility for the funeral.  Any funds thereafter will go towards the entire balance of the funeral. The whole family is struggling to come up with the money in such a short amount of time so I am hoping to raise as many donations as possible to help ease the financial burden a little.  It is hard enough to deal with the loss of a grandparent, let alone trying to come up with the money to bury them.  I appreciate your understanding and sympathy with all of this.

------------If you do not feel comfortable donating on this site, you can send your donation to us (Andre and/or Anna) in person or via snail mail.  ----------------------

OR

If you would like to donate to the funeral home directly, here is the address:

Modell Funeral Home
Re: Funeral Expenses for Francisca Orta
C/O Andres Barron
7710 S. Cass Ave.
Darrien Il 60561

Pictured: My wife (Anna) and I with my Grandma and my dad (recently had a stroke)