It has a been a long journey for Roxanne's children since she was diagnosed with esophageal and lung cancer in the fall of 2023. In January of 2024, Roxanne went through radiation therapy to try to get rid of the cancer. Everything looked great after six months, but in January of 2025 her PET scan showed her esophageal cancer came back. Roxanne did not want to go through chemotherapy or surgery as she knew she wasn't in the best health, so her daughters and her decided to take a more palliative route with her diagnosis.

Their plan was to do another round of radiation on her esophagus in March this year, but Roxanne had an unexpected event happen where she suffered a stroke. She was then flown to Sioux Falls and they performed a thrombectomy and while they were performing the procedure, they found a brain lesion, which was a new finding for everyone. She was in the hospital for 3 weeks working with therapy and getting palliative radiation to her brain. At that time the surgeon and doctors gave her a prognosis of 6 months.

From the hospital, she went to Encompass for rehab. Her insurance only paid for a week and told her daughters their recommendations were inpatient hospice but it would be out of pocket. At the time of discharge, they told Genny that there was no services available for home care in Yankton. So, it was on Roxanne's children to care for her needs when she'd go home.

Genny, who recently started grad school at Augustana to obtain her nurse practitioner degree, lives in Sioux Falls most of the time as she is working full-time at the Avera McKennan Hosptial. Her daughter Lanny lives in Utah where she also is a nurse. They also have a brother, Nathan Snoozy, but he also has a family and works full-time hours plus to support his family. With all this going on with her children, Genny was able to find time to care for her mom 2-3 times a week while managing her school and workload. Her brother would check on their mother daily to make sure she was safe. Genny and Lanny even put cameras in the house to ensure her mother was safe. Even with Lanny being in Utah, she would fly back every 2 weeks when she was able, which can get expensive.

Well, on May 3rd, Roxanne was cooking in her kitchen and turned away from her stove and ended up falling onto her left leg fracturing her hip. Genny talked with the doctors and they decided, even with her being a high-risk patient, that surgery would give her a better quality of life as the pain was unbearable and complications of not doing the surgery would be worse than the risks doing the procedures. After the surgery, Genny talked with social work and they were able to get her to Sister James in Yankton for a skilled stay. Roxanne has improved but it is still not safe for her to live alone. Insurance is a stressful thing to deal with, but Genny has been working hard to try to het her mother LTC insurance which she still is working through. Her mother's insurance is no longer paying for her skilled stay, but the social worker ensured Genny that he is working on the process and it just takes time.

As many of you know, after someone passes you still have that expense of funeral costs and medical bills. Sadly, Roxanne doesn't have much assets or money so her children will be in charge of those expenses.

With Roxanne being their only living parent, this has been a very trying time. Genevieve and Elianna are two of the most generous, kind, and loving people we have ever met. They go above and beyond for their community in Gayville and Yankton despite their busy life. They both have worked in healthcare for years now and have dedicated their lives to caring for others' loved ones in the darkest of times. We would love if you could support them in any way. Prayers are needed during this time.