Help Donna be worry free in her last few days

Donna Provence has always been a fighter.

Born Donna Simpson on August 30, 1958 and raised by her Father and Aunt, who took care of everything relating to her upbringing. She met her first husband, Donny, when she was 15 and had her first daughter, Mandy, at the age of 16.

They made it through trying times and financial hardships to try and give their newborn daughter the best upbringing a couple of teenagers could, and it was a constant struggle.

Donna started her career by going to nursing school at the age of 29 – then a year later, at the age of 30, she had her second daughter, Samantha.

After graduating and becoming a nurse on the cardiac care floor of Baptist Hospital in Little Rock, Donna – newly single, married Doyle Provence in February of 1992. Donna and Samantha moved to East End, Arkansas, where Donna embraced and was embraced by her new in-laws in the Provence family – particularly Faye and John Provence, who lived just up the hill from their son, Doyle, and his new bride.

Donna worked long twelve-hour shifts at Baptist, helping patients and comforting families through the trying and difficult times involved with their loved ones recuperating from heart ailments…all the while, breaking down her body from numerous injuries from a terrible car accident, and the normal wear and tear of walking hospital floors for twelve hours a day for thirty years. But Donna fought through it because she loved her patients and wanted what was best for them.

After thirty years working with Baptist, Donna finally retired in 2016. Her send-off retirement party was the stuff of legends. So many friends and family came out to give her a proper goodbye from their time together at Baptist.

Following her retirement, Donna’s rheumatoid arthritis became increasingly more severe and her mobility was hampered badly in just a few short years. She received a knee replacement and had been trying for years to also procure a hip replacement, but her mobility issues made it difficult to obtain.

In the meawhile, however, Donna enjoyed some fun things – her love of the Harry Potter book series led Donna, Doyle and Sam to travel to Orlando, Florida where Donna took great joy at seeing all the wonderful things she’d read about in the books and seen in the movies.

She also spent a considerable amount of time reading her favorite novels (over and over again) and spending time with her many animals – whom she loved dearly and her family, who she was fiercely protective of - and who were loved by her and supported by her in myriad ways. She loved going to the movies with her niece, Vanessa and a revolving cast of family and friends.

But as mobility issues increased, and the COVID-19 Lockdown made getting around even more difficult, Donna began to feel ill (not because of COVID) and finally, after some urging (because nurses are *literally* the worst patients and always think of others first) – planned on going to the Doctor.

This visit never got to happen. On the week she was supposed to visit her primary care physician for a check-up, she collapsed at home, needing to be taken to the hospital by an ambulance after a period of not being sure where she was or what was going on…and upon entering the hospital’s emergency room, she crashed and had to be brought back to a conscious state – this was absolutely terrifying to her immediate and extended family.

Donna was admitted to the ICU for a few weeks and intubated, needing a ventilator machine to help her to breathe. This included getting a tracheotomy, which took away Donna’s ability to speak, and that was a traumatizing situation for both her and her family, as we all knew Donna loved to talk and have conversations and make jokes. Everyone had to adjust to a new way of communicating with her via reading lips or her pointing at letters on a board.

The official diagnosis was COPD, a breathing disorder, Pneumonia, and an increasingly bad case of Congestive heart failure, which physicians think exacerbated the other issues with her breathing, leading to the initial collapse and subsequent hospitalization.

So, after giving thirty years of her life to Baptist Hospital, here she was, ironically, spending months and months there in the Baptist Hospital Extended Care Hospital – and while she had been showing some improvement, albeit with several minor setbacks, she kept pushing, and kept fighting against this disease robbing her of her breath, and stealing from all of us her voice.

Medicare decided they were only going to pay for 90 days of her treatment, and as of the time of writing this, she’s been in the hospital, fighting for her life, for 130+ days.

Donna has been fighting to get off of the ventilator for months. Going upwards of 11 to 12 hours without breathing assistance on a device called a “trach collar” – but it just wasn’t getting any better…and when she was given an ultimatum – be sent away from the place she worked for for 30 years to a palliative care facility in Oklahoma, where she wouldn’t see anyone from her friends or family regularly – with no promise of a full recovery and terribly expensive per day costs…or staying where she is, surrounded by her loved ones, and turning off the ventilator.

Donna Provence has *always* been a fighter.

Fighting to make things work in a life where her mother abandoned her as a baby.

Fighting to raise a child when she was still basically one herself.

Fighting to make a better life for herself and her brand new baby as a then newly single woman.

Fighting to make the best situation possible for her and hers during long shifts at the hospital and all the things you could imagine in her personal life.

Fighting to stay alive, to see what is next, and to be with her family…

…and now Donna, exhausted from the war with her own body, is ready to lay her burden down, and be reunited with her friends and family that have already moved on. She’s worn out from the fight and wants the peace that comes from not having to use machines to breathe or having to rely on others for everything she has to do.

Donna is at peace with where she is in life and is ready for the next step.

We will miss her profusely. Her loss is seismic, enormous…and heartbreaking. But she wanted one thing to be done before she left, and it was this fundraising drive – in efforts to cover parts of her enormous hospital bills, from being rushed to Baptist in an ambulance, to having the crash cart, ER bills, ICU bills, Extended Care Hospital Bills and all the other enormous subsequent costs, be they legal or otherwise.

Donna’s last fight is to take care of her family and to make sure that they aren’t destroyed financially by all the crushing debt that being Sick in America will do to those left behind by a loved one’s passing.

So, we, Donna’s family – at Donna’s urgent request, are asking for assistance in helping to cover some of her medical bills and funeral expenses and other related expenses so that she can truly leave this world without worry. So that she can experience an end to her struggle on her own terms.

Know this - Donna loves all her family and friends to an enormous degree, and if possible, would like that love directed back at her as she moves on to what is next by any assistance possible they can muster on this fundraiser campaign.

Any amount, no matter the size, is helpful. If you can’t afford to assist at this time, we all understand. Times are tough for us, too. We get it.

In closing -- We want Donna’s final days to be peaceful, and full of love, empathy and of celebration of who she is to us and how much love we have for her.

Donna and the entire Provence family, in-laws, friends, etc. – appreciate you taking the time to read this and urge you, if you can, to give today to help insure that she leaves in peace and that the family can attend to Donna properly.

Thank you. We love you.

-Donna Provence (and family)