To Help My Step-Mom After My Dads Passing For Bills, etc…

On 11/10/2024, My Dad lost his battle to cancer and passed away peacefully at home; his wishes were to not pass in some hospital and peacefully at home so he got his wishes. Up until his passing, he was doing pretty good minus not being able to walk which that happened when he got to the ER at the end of September. He had food clogged up in his esophagus and they had to clear it out and was at the hospital until Oct 16th, a few days after his birthday, Oct 14th. The night of his passing he had about 6 seizures and didn’t wake up even though he was breathing and then eventually the Lord called him home.

I made him and my step-Mom this GoFund me earlier this year to help them with bills and such while my Dad was still with us but to help them since they were behind is bills and yet still unfortunately are. So, I decided to keep the page going instead of canceling it so that way I can still help raise money to help my step-Mom with funeral and cremation expenses as well as medical bills their insurance didn’t cover and just other bills as well. I left the old story below for those that want to read his cancer story.

Thank you

Hi everyone, this is Thom’s daughter Amanda.

I am making my Dad, Thom, and my Step-Mom, Robin one of these Go-Fund-Me pages because they are needing help.

We usually don’t ask for help but this time, we need to.

Here is the story: Last year (2023) around the first of the year (and before) dad started not feeling well and losing weight. Then, just before Spring time, my Dad was diagnosed with stomach cancer at the age of 64.

March 2023 large tumors were found in his stomach, and behind. In April 2023 he went in for surgery, and they removed all of his stomach, his spleen, half of his pancreas. Also, during surgery they found tumors in his right chest. Ironically he already didn’t have a gallbladder as that removed back in the 80’s.

Just over a couple months after recovering from all the surgery (For over three months he couldn’t even eat and had to have TPN, or fed intravenously). He then began learning how to eat and function without a stomach. After the TPN and learning how to eat he began doing chemotherapy, which was suppose to treat the entire body, as they weren’t exactly sure if it was anywhere else they couldn’t see.

A couple months into the chemotherapy he had to stop, as it was so aggressive it was making him extremely sick; with the chemo almost killing him.

After stopping the chemo he seemed to be doing extremely well (eating and all)… But on May 6, 2024, he wound up having two seizures, and was sent to the ER. He wasn’t able to breathe on his own and had a breathing a tube, and was heavily sedated. Thankfully, after waking up he was able to breathe on his own and was, more or less fine. Yet the doctors wanted to know what caused the seizures. CT scans of his brain were performed, and they found nine, or more, tumors in his brain. He was at the hospital for a few more days, and now is at home and he is on seizure meds, and steroids (for swelling in the brain) medication.

The tumors in his brain, doctors said, are in inoperable. My guess is that there are just too many, and where they are located. Doctors did state there are options for aggressive radiation, but would make him very ill. And that the success rate is extremely low. So what’s the point, he doesn’t want to do that, and I don’t blame him because I wouldn’t either. What is the point when it isn’t going to kill the cancer, and all it does is by you more time, but you have to feel miserable from the radiation; yeah no. Why make yourself more miserable when you don’t know how much longer you have.

He wants to feel normal as possible, and not be sick from treatment. Spend as much time as he can with his family and friends.

The Doctors said that his memory might go and if so, not sure how much. Also, possibly vision problems and headaches. I hoping that doesn’t happen! But for the meantime, he’s doing fine. Yet now, the big problem are bills from all this (over a year) of medical expenses. Bills that his insurance didn’t cover. This year he obviously had to retire, way before he was ready, and from a career in aviation that he’s been at for almost 40 years.

Anyways, all this in general has caused bills to add up. My Step-Mom is retired also. They’ve been trying to sell stuff to make ends meet. They are also having to downsize, basically anything that they can do to pay on bills. So I figured I’d help them out by making one of these pages. After my Dad passes, I feel like it’d be nice for my Step-Mom to not have the burden of trying to pay for everything (Med bills etc.) left behind.

We really don’t know how much time my Dad has on this Earth, but we are trying our best to help be there for him as much as possible. All the money donated will be given to my Dad and my Step-Mom, of course, and all of it will be going to bills.

My Dad has said this to me… “I’ve put it in our Lords hands, and I’m OK with that”!

Thank you so much from the bottoms of our hearts, from: my older bro. Shawn, younger bro. Justin and his son David, my Mom Cindy, Step-Mom Robin, Step-Mom Cassie, my better half, Taylor, and my daughter Alana. My step-sister Heather, her son Ben, and her fiancé Adam too! 

Note… Dad wasn’t ready to retire for a couple years yet (or longer), so this really caught them by surprise. Then after official retirement, with his Masters Degree in Aviation Maintenance Technology he was planning to teach. He wanted to give back some of what he had learned over all the years he had been in aviation to young people who had the same dreams that he had at their age too! By the way, my Dad never smoked, never drank, and never did any drugs, ever!

Our efforts are this, so not only can they manage their finances, but stay in their home until the Lord calls our dad home! This would be a really bad time for them to be selling their home!