Fund Manuel's Final Farewell and Family Support

Well, many of you know me as Michael's mom, and others know my story with him. Manuel Maño Arellano was a jolly kindhearted man. I met Maño at Hollenbeck, at the age of 13 in the 7th grade. Later down in life we had a son Michael. Manuel was an avid sports fan and longed to be a professional referee. After finishing his culinary education he became a chef. He worked at USC, where he met his wife Mayra. They got married and had two amazing boys, Jacob and Zachary. Last year, he bought a home near us, we were so excited, and he was so happy to have his boys all together again. A dream that was cut short.

Our long-time friendship of 32 years has ended, but it will not be forgotten.

During covid, he was the only one who had pneumonia. Sadly to say that he risked his health for all of us and he took us all to get checked. Although he wore a mask, because of that little cough, he always had he didn't know he had covid too. However, he was always coughing. He always said, "It's just a cough, it's just a cough. Stop." One day in February, as we were talking on the phone, he sounded like he was drowning and I asked “Why does it sound like your voice is underwater?" and he responded “I don't know. It’s just this cough. Something in my throat. I don't know". I told him, "Go check that out. That doesn't sound very normal. Talking like you're drowning". Well, it took him almost 1 month to be seen, and during his Dr.Visit, he was told he had pleural effusion fluid around his lungs. However, he was never told about the ascitis around his abdomen.

They just gave him a big bottle of cough syrup and a nebulizer for his breathing. Concerned, I began doing some research here and there, and I urged him to check himself out. He said "yeah, yeah I will." But, I will never happened." On May 1st, I got a text from his wife telling me that Manuel's going to the emergency room after work. What started as a cough ended up with water in his lungs. So the next day, he was drained. Soon after that, they did MRIs and CAT scans, and what they found was a small mass in his lungs. He ended up getting a biopsy, and that's where they found cancer. The doctors wanted to treat his cancer, but they needed to know where it started so they could give him chemo. Unfortunately, because the liquid in his lungs kept coming back, he was not able to get treatment as planned. He got drained three times, but as soon as he got drained, the liquid just kept coming back. He was on oxygen for about a month or so, and on June 1st I got a call from his wife telling me that Manuel had stage 4 cancer, I was so saddened by the news, I was at a loss for words. I immediately left my daughter's graduation party to be at his side. When I got there, the first thing he says was, "I never did anything wrong to anybody, I've always been a good person.", Manuel was a fighter he had the will power to live, he said to me "I want to see Michael get married, I want to see my grandkids, I want to see my kids grow up." I told him, " You will. We’ll fight this." It was then that he started his battle with cancer. Sadly, to say that during that time, he was having a really hard time with his breathing, and the coughing at night wasn't helping his situation. His amazing wife Mayra took care of him for almost 2 months, tending to all his needs and his brother Mario went out of his way trying to find ways of helping him. But unfortunately, with all that, he was still not getting any better. One day, he felt he didn't need the oxygen tank anymore. We were so hopeful that day, but unfortunately, the next day he just got worse.

Unfortunately, due to the severity of his health and underlying conditions, he was unable to get further treatment in time. The worst part about this rare and aggressive cancer was how fast it spread. It spread so fast, like wild fire, that the oncologist was not able to determine where and what caused this type of cancer. All he said was that it was a very dark stage of cancer, so rare that it was not curable. It was the worst he'd ever seen in his 24 years of practice. All of his care team worked so diligently. That even with all that they did for him…it took his life in less than two months. Alongside his wife and my son, he passed away. Manuel Maño Arellano, age 52, earned his angel wings on June 12, 2024, as he lost his battle to a rare type of cancer. Manuel: a father, a husband, a brother, a son, a friend, a co-worker, an uncle, a cousin and a nephew, leaves behind three boys, Michael, age 24, Jacob age 8 and Zachary, age 5. Please help us raise money to pay for his final farewell during this very painful time. All donations will go toward funeral and memorial services. Any money left after funeral expenses have been paid will be placed in a trust fund for the two young boys left behind.