On 2/5/26, Ben passed away surrounded by his family. We were married for 17 years, with 4 children. This was so unexpected and has left us devastated. On 12/7/25, Ben suffered a heart attack while at work on the railroad. We believed he was on the right track and had open-heart surgery on 1/12/26 to fix the blockages he had. They ended up doing 5 bypasses successfully. Surgery went amazing, but he was struggling with fluid retention and exhaustion. On 2/4/26, we went to bed at 1:00 am, and he said he was starting to feel better, actually that he was “feeling great.” I woke up at 5:30 am and just knew something was wrong. He was blue and ice cold, and I knew he was gone. After another 20 minutes, they were able to get his heart restarted; however, the damage was done. He suffered catastrophic brain damage. We were able to send him home to be with Jesus the next day.

With Ben being out of work for almost 3 months, we were already struggling but managing. We have been staying in a hotel and will be for at least the next week. We are currently packing up the house and getting everything into storage as we are moving back to Florida with Ben’s parents. Our whole lives have been flipped upside down, and the bills are not going to stop rolling in. We are fundraising to help cover the costs of living and moving expenses during this incredibly difficult time.