An Act of Kindness for the Goldbergs

Hi, my name is Karen and I have created this page to support my life long friend Crystle and her two sons in the hopes of relieving them of the financial burden that they have now been unfortunately faced with.

Crystle and Howard grew up in Woodside where they met and fell in love. They got married in 1992 and had two wonderful sons and soon moved to Old Bridge, NJ for their happily every after, so they thought.

This past May of 2022 they celebrated their 30 year anniversary in Cape May where Howard first experienced stomach pains and lack of appetite. He went to a Gastro who sent him for a CT scan 6/27. At the same time he developed and was treated for what he thought to be a stye on the left eye; but was later told it had to be surgically removed by a plastic eye lid surgeon who biopsied it on 7/13 as it looked suspicious. The CT scan came back showing a mass in the pancreas and the eye biopsy came back cancerous metastasis (meaning the primary cancer was somewhere else). By now Howard had noticed numbing on left of his face, having trouble swallowing and was barely eating. He followed up and saw a cancer specialist who admitted him to St. Peters Hospital to work him up. On 7/27 they did an MRI of the brain and a biopsy of the abdomen.

On 8/1 he was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer that had spread to his abdomen, pancreas, lymph nodes in the neck, eye, brain and spine. The results were overwhelming. He began radiation the day after his diagnosis as an outpatient to shrink the tumors on his spine, brain and eye. Treatments were working but simultaneously he was getting so weak and frail that he could no longer walk without the help of someone. He went back into the hospital on 8/10 and began chemo and continued to be transported to radiation until the pain was too great that he could no longer continue the treatments and they unfortunately were not working enough to put him into remission.

Howard’s wishes were to go home. On 8/19 he came home under hospice care and on 8/23 he passed at home with his loving wife and sons by his side.

Howard was the breadwinner and Crystle was an at home mother all her years (with part time jobs here and there) and was not ready for this tragedy. She thought for sure he had a few months at home; not just 5 days. She is now left with a mortgage, car payments, medical insurance and an abundance of medical bills that were incurred with no income or life insurance policy. She is brushing up on courses now and seeking employment. But in the meantime, I am hoping that this page will help ease her pain and stress until she is able to get employment.

Would you please consider making a donation to help? Any amount would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read my page.