In August of this year, Ana, our 37-year-old sister with Down’s Syndrome, began to lose the ability to walk unassisted. We took her to Stanford Hospital’s emergency department and was referred to the Neurology department. In the time that we waited for the appointment, our sister lost the ability to walk altogether and started to have difficulty swallowing. Our family did not understand what was wrong and decided to take her to Doctors Memorial in Modesto. Ana was there approximately two weeks before being transferred to Stanford; there it was confirmed that she had a Neurological Degenerative Disease. After many tests and a few procedures, we ultimately found out that Ana suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).We went to Stanford with hopes of finding a cure or treatment to what Ana was experiencing, but never in a million years did we expect to come home knowing that our goofy and happy Ana was only going to be with us for a limited time. This was hard for all of us, but it seemed to especially hit our Dad the hardest. Ana and our Dad were buddies; they loved to tease each other and had a unique bond. Ana’s diagnosis took a toll on his mind and body; in mid-December, our Dad developed a respiratory infection that eventually caused him to be hospitalized in early January. Our Dad fought so hard in the hospital for exactly one month because he didn’t want to leave Ana and our Mom behind, but yesterday February 4th, our Heavenly Father decided it was time for him to rest and wait for Ana.  As difficult as it has been to accept, our family had come to terms with the imminent loss of Ana but we never thought that we would suffer the loss of our Dad first. We are reaching out to family and friends to help with anything they can, to assist with the expenses for our Dad’s funeral and for Ana’s because we know what lies ahead in the near future.  Sincerely, The Reyna Family