One last road trip...

Hi, my name is Meredith (Maslich) Eaton and I'm raising money for my sister, Valerie Garlock, and her partner, Rick Szakalski. Rick has been in a valiant fight with cancer for the last year, and it has recently become clear that there aren't many more rounds left to fight.

My family first heard Rick's name from Val a couple of decades ago, in the context of being a really good friend and co-worker. At some point, we realized that Rick had evolved from a best friend into a life partner for my sister. Rick is a quiet, generous, and gentle man with an infinite amount of love and loyalty. When Val met him he was a Tool and Die Maker at the factory where she was working in Auburn, NY. When the factory shut down, he was offered a job at another factory in the midwest, but he turned it down because he didn't want to be away from his children and knew Val would be unhappy away from her family. Instead, he got a commercial driver's license and spent some time as a long-haul trucker, but ultimately found it too difficult to be away from Val for days at a time, so traded in his truck for a job as a special education driver in and around Auburn.

All of Rick's passengers quickly grew to love him and look forward to seeing him twice a day, and Rick loved them just as much - to the point where he avoided ever taking a day off because he knew it would be upsetting and disruptive to his passengers.

And then the pandemic hit, and of course, Rick was forced to stop driving until things opened up again, and shortly thereafter, Val was also eventually laid off from her job. Not one to sit around, Rick used the forced downtime to make some renovations on their house, one of Rick's many, many talents is construction). Then, in August of 2021 he began treatment for an extremely painful nerve issue in his neck. When things started to open back up, Val returned to work, but Rick was on disability because of his nerve condition. The plan was that he would finish treatments in a few months and then be able to return to work, and with their shared strong work ethic they knew they would quickly dig out of their pandemic debt and have a quick path back to their normal life, where they hosted Rick's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren for huge family dinners on Sundays, and always had an open door for anyone who needed anything (people or cats!). But if that were the end of the story, we wouldn't be here.

As Rick was about to get his last treatment and return to work, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Even with their health insurance, the bills very quickly exceeded what they could handle. He still held out hope that he would be able to return to get off disability and return to work, but the pain and the effects of treatment were too much and he was forced to remain on leave from his job.

Val was now working two jobs, usually working 12 hours a day, while also taking care of Rick and the house (and grandkids, pets, etc.), and the stress started to take its toll on her in the form of kidney stones and infections that had her in and out of the hospital. At one point she was fighting a kidney infection while Rick was home recovering from chemo, and she delayed seeking treatment because she didn't want to leave him. When she finally went to the ER she was septic, and had to stay in the hospital for several days. Which of course meant more medical bills, more days off work, and more missed pay...

In February of 2022, Rick was determined to be a candidate for a Whipple Procedure- which is generally the only surgical recourse for his type of pancreatic cancer. Most of us have only heard of a Whipple in the context of Grey's Anatomy, but it turns out it's a real thing! And while it was a grueling, difficult surgery, Rick beat every expectation, and not only was the surgery deemed a complete success, but Rick also recovered faster than predicted. He was a man on a mission to get back to his life, and back to his bus passengers, and he wasn't going to waste a minute laying around longer than necessary.

A few weeks after the surgery, Rick began to have stomach pain, which was at first attributed to the challenges of recovering from surgery. But during a routine follow-up, tests revealed a new, very aggressive tumor on his liver. The fact that it hadn't been there at the time of the surgery, but was already large enough to cause pain, indicated this was a really aggressive cancer.

To say they were devastated would be an understatement. But Rick isn't someone who gives up easily, so he immediately started a new round of chemo. After a few weeks, the tumor had shrunk significantly so they stopped treatment for a couple of weeks. But the mass immediately began to regrow quickly. The doctors informed Val and Rick that they felt the only thing that would keep the cancer in check was chemo, and that stopping chemo would mean the beginning of a final chapter.

So for the last few months, Rick has been on a regular schedule of receiving chemo every two weeks. The week after treatment he is usually sick in bed with "chemo flu" and the following week he feels good enough to get out of bed and live his life. Rick has been using this time to wrap things up and get all of his affairs in order, because he has decided that the end of chemo is not too far into the future. One of the items on his to do list is to take a trip down here to Myrtle Beach, SC to see those of us in Val's family that are living here (myself & my husband, our sister Allison and her husband and son Mason, and our Mom and Val's step-dad). Rick has chosen to drive (rather than fly) from Auburn to Myrtle Beach because he has always loved road trips and between Covid and his health issues, it's been years since he's been able to take one.

The problem is that taking this road trip means that Val has to take a week off work without pay (no more PTO available) which poses a significant financial hardship. Rick's daughter is paying for their gas and food and they are staying with our sister Allison, so their expenses are minimal, but the real issue is the loss of income while they are here. And THAT is why I have created this go-fund-me.

I am asking for help to ease their financial burden during this incredibly difficult time for them. I hate the idea that Val will ever have to choose between spending time with Rick or having to work so she can buy groceries or pay for parking at the hospital.

If I could, I'd pay for everything they need, but I just don't have the means. My entire family has stepped up in different ways to offer financial and emotional support throughout this journey, but now it's time for us to ask for help from our larger circle of friends and family. We can't cure cancer or change the future, but we can ease some of their stress, help them feel the love and support of many more people, and make navigating the next few weeks and months a little easier for them. Any amount you can contribute - even a single dollar - will help ease their financial stress and support Rick in leaving nothing unfinished.

They are planning to come to Myrtle Beach the last week of August, and so any funds raised between now and then will go directly to supporting them while they are here and offsetting their bills and when they get back to Auburn. Any funds that raised beyond that will go toward allowing Val to have more flexibility in missing more work in the coming weeks or months to be able to be with Rick.

If you aren't able to make a financial contribution, consider contributing to their emotional support through sharing stories about them, and words of love and support, either directly with them, or in the comments here which I will pass on to them.

On behalf of our entire family, thank you for reading this, and for your support.