On September 6, my sweet, outgoing, heart-of-gold mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic lung cancer. The cancer had already traveled to her brain, spine, hip, and lymph. She was able to receive 8 days of highly targeted brain radiation. Due to increasing fluid building up around her lungs, she underwent a procedure to install a pleural catheter in order to drain the fluid more easily. On what was to be the 9th day of radiation and first chemo infusion, she suffered a cardiac ischemic attack that put her in the hospital for 6 days. As the doctors began looking for the cause of the attack, a cardiac CT showed that the mass in her lung had begun infiltrating her heart. She returned home with some pretty significant cardiac fatigue and a few more medications, which we were successfully managing for about 5 days. On the morning of Monday, November 3, Mama woke up with noticeable right-sided weakness and was unable to speak. We got her to the hospital, where her weakness continued to increase. My family made the decision for Mama to enter Hospice and not undergo any further treatment. We were blessed with an open bed in under 4 hours, and she was transferred to Community Hospice House in Merrimack, NH. We are here now, supporting Mama as her body comes to a rest. She is peaceful and comfortable.

If all of this wasn't devastating enough, my father is a career-long employee of the Federal Government and has not received a paycheck since the shutdown began. All of the co-pays and costs to this point have come from their life savings. Mama's time with us is drawing to an end, and it is my wish for my father and family to be able to grieve without the anxiety of unpaid bills hanging over his head. My parents have always been the first to help when there is a need. Now it's time for us to repay the years of kindness, servitude, and selflessness they have afforded to their loved ones and extended family. Please consider a donation if it is on your heart to.

Thank you all,

Amy