Marie's battle with cancer

Hello Friends, family, and whomever else has had the pleasure of knowing the Murray family like I have. The Murray family is one of the most loving, helpful, generous and outright caring families I’ve ever met. I have personally known the family for many years and would like to share their story to help them through this trying time, as they’ve never stopped helping others. This is A way for me to repay for everything they’ve done for me in securing them the help they deserve and also for as much prayer they can receive in this trying time. For a bit of context, this year has been extremely challenging for this family. My friend Jena, Marie’s daughter, is a mother of five whose priorities are helping anyone that is struggling and has been A mainstay at the ICU along with her father Wally Murray, who has been the epitome of a loving loyal husband. The entire family; friends,  new friends,  old friends that lost contact,  nieces, nephews, grandchildren and siblings spend every day at the hospital with Marie, even taking shifts to better work around each other’s obligations.

   One of the chief concerns right now is that both Marie and Wally are of retirement age and physically disabled/ limited, which does not allow them the means to pay for medical and cremation expenses. Marie’s been going to the doctors faithfully for years, after recovering from a fractured hp, and almost losing her life in 2019. Marie had been explaining to her Dr that she had a new and unusual pain in her back that was un-tolerable, her Dr just blew it off made her do physical therapy  but refused any testing, no matter how many times she brought it to her attention, but recently had A fall, sometime in may, outside of Kaiser hospital. This is what led to the doctors to taking MRIs and discovering the carcinoma that had already spread to her spine, kidney, lymph nodes, chest and blood.  She was originally given two months to live back in July and every day moving forward has been a heart-wrenching guessing game. Her son, Jimmy, flew from San Antonio Texas as soon as he first heard the news, and joined Jena to spend the better part of July tending to her needs as well as trying to nurse her back to health along with her forever loyal, dedicated husband of 49 years-Wally Murray. They had to spend their 49th anniversary in the hospital,  unfortunately Marie had to undergo surgery that day and was fully medicated and not so coherent that day, but her loving husband sat right beside her the entire day. Unfortunately, soon after her son left back to Texas to be with his wife and two daughters. Marie took a turn for the worse and was rushed to the ER because of severely swollen extremities. They also found her heart wall was filled with liters of fluid which required emergency surgery. She has now been hospitalized a total of three times since the diagnosis and her family are fighting and advocating continuously. She has finished radiation, but is not an eligible candidate for chemo at this time due to how weak she is.The dilemma the family faces at this point is that they have no means for a proper burial or funeral. It is heartbreaking, but Marie has taken it upon herself to tell her family that when the time comes, she would rather be cremated with no ceremony, against her original wishes, so asnot to burden her family. Watching the hurt in Marie’s and her family’s eyes when she said that made me obligated to spread this story and help raise the money for the funeral and final burial expenses. Marie has always wished to have a proper ceremony and be buried next to her younger brother who she loved dearly. Seeing how courageous and strong Marie has been throughout this entire ordeal has touched me deeply, and the least I can do is advocate, plead and god willing, help get her family the help they could use for her cremation, medical expenses and ceremony that she deserves. Marie deserves to be celebrated for the amazing mother grandmother and wife she was. I'm so grateful to have known her all the years I have.  Thank you in advance foryour help, consideration and prayers for the Murray family. I know this would mean the world to them and their beloved MeeMa..( Marie Murray).