Help Ease Vicky's Daughters’ Burden

March 2025 Update:

I wanted to provide a more formal update regarding the status of the gofundme that my sister & I had organized for my mom. This fundraiser was created after the doctors had given my mom only days to live. Given this timeline, we were left scrambling trying to figure out what to do financially as nothing had been left for us in regards to end of life planning.

Despite the grim outlook, our mom has always been a fighter and still had some fight left in her. How much time she will have left to fight remains undetermined, but earlier this month she had recovered enough to be transferred to a rehab facility. Our hope is she will be able to regain skills to return home.

We know that many of you donated to this cause believing our mom wouldn’t be around much longer. We believed the same, but she has defied the odds and proven us all wrong. That being said, a large portion of the money had been used to pay for end of life care during the time we were told to make arrangements. The rest is currently set aside for future end of life expenses for my mom.

Given the circumstances, we would like to offer anyone wanting their donation back to please message me so we can arrange a way to refund these payments to you. Unfortunately, there is not a way for me to message each of you on the GoFundMe or refund it though there due to their system.

We want to thank everyone who donated at a critical time of need and want to reassure everyone that their donations have only (and will only) be used for my mom’s end of life care as intended. I want to encourage anyone with concerns to please reach out to me.

Sincerely,

Amber Bischoff (Willis)

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Sunday (1/23/2025) update:

Mom is still currently admitted to the hospital, but she has moved off the ICU unit. She is still having regular procedures and blood transfusions done at this time, so her health is still very volatile. We are taking it day by day. We aren’t sure what the long-term outlook for her looks like right now. There is a lot of uncertainty. We appreciate all the outreach and support over the last few weeks. All money that has been donated has been placed into a savings account for expenses related to our mom’s medical expenses and any future end of life expenses. We are grateful we’ve had extra time with our mom, but we know not every day is guaranteed and the need for financial assistance whenever her time comes still exists. We will be providing updates as necessary regarding her progress through gofundme, but please reach out to Amber if you have any further questions or concerns.

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Sunday (1/16/2025) update:

Mom is very lucid and responsive today. Today would be a great day to visit if you haven’t already. We’ve had some great FaceTimes this morning with her grand baby (Leighton) this morning - we’ve gotten lots of laughs from her too as Leighton tried to talk with her she’s been able to answer a lot of unknowns for Ashly and myself, and it’s giving us a lot of peace and closure knowing what’s to still come.

We will not be moving to comfort care today as she’s been able to verbally tell us she’s not quite ready (but is aware of her health status and outcomes), so this will be a reconsideration on Tuesday or Wednesday now depending on weather to make sure Ashly can make it there safely.

The outreach of support and care for my mom has been truly incredible. It warms my heart to know how much she’s loved and how many people have shared so many great memories with her. She’s appreciated everyone who has come to visit and loved naming all those people off to me this morning. She has been so grateful for all of you.

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Original Post:

As some of you may be aware, our mom (Vicky) has been in extremely critical health since Saturday, February 1st. Yesterday (February 13th) we got the news that her condition has rapidly taken a turn for the worst and to expect only days left. We have transitioned her to a DNR/DNI as of today and we will plan to transition to comfort cares this upcoming Sunday. Following that transition, we expect things to change rapidly.

This has taken our family by shock and surprise, and is unfortunately a situation none of us were prepared for. We are grateful to have so many friends & family making their way to visit our mom in her last few days. The memories that have been shared with Ashly & myself have made us smile on all the lives she impacted.

Unfortunately we have found out today that our mom did not have an active life insurance policy or any other financial means to help Ashly & I cover these anticipated expenses. While we are still in the initial phase of anticipating what’s to come in the upcoming days, new stress has come about associated with the financial aspect of fulfilling our mom’s final wishes. We are kindly asking for any support at this time to ease this burden for my sister & I as it is an unexpected heavy expense that weighs on us in this difficult time.

We would like to be able to fulfill our mom’s wishes as she would have liked and your support will allow us to do so.

From the bottom of our hearts, we are so grateful for the friends, family, and coworkers who have been with us in the last 24 hours and in the days ahead. This has been one of the hardest things either one of us has had to go through and we are so grateful for the large support system we have.

-Amber & Ashly Willis