Hi, my name is Jessica Black, and I created this GoFundMe for two of my best friends (a sibling duo) and their siblings as they are grieving their father's passing. Within the last two and a half years their father, Darryl Parnell, was diagnosed and living with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He was fighting the good fight by surviving a bone marrow transplant, brain surgery and many chemo treatments. He was in recovery until his cancer came back during  August, 2021. Darryl spent the next five months in the hospital going through different treatments to get him through this recurrence of his cancer.

In the early part of February 2022 Darryl got sick with an incurable infection. This is when things started to progress quickly. He was in the hospital less than two weeks while the doctors tried their best to help him fight. The doctors tried everything and had to finally tell his family that there was nothing else they could do for Darryl. This became Darryl and his family's worst-case scenario. February 19th, 2022 Darryl found himself in hospice care at his brother's home and within a week of being in hospice, Darryl passed away the morning of February 25th, 2022 while in his sleep. 

Being someone who fights every day for her life, I know how hard it is to plan for the worst-case scenario. I have been living with stage 4 cancer for three years. Cancer is a hurry up and wait disease. The doctors move fast while you wait for the treatments to work. And when it's time for the disease to takeover, it moves so quickly we don't have time to process what is going on. That is what happened to Darryl, to my best friends and their family. Darryl did not have time, they did not have time. They did not have a chance to prepare. They did not have an opportunity to say goodbye to their father, uncle, grandfather, brother, and friend because they were still healing from his earlier treatment and diagnosis.

They were living in the moment with him through recovery, then all of a sudden his cancer came back and then he was in hospice. It felt like with every breath, the disease spread. There wasn't a moment to sit down and discuss what needed to happen next because there was never a clear answer. Which is life, right?  We are thankful he passed away in his sleep but we wish Darryl would have had a chance to say goodbye to his siblings, kids and grandkids, and a chance to make his last wishes known for his homecoming. My friend did say he looked peaceful when she finally made it to see him later that day he passed away. Now both my friends, along with their siblings and family have to make these decisions while grieving the loss of their father. 
 

Let me tell you about Darryl Parnell,  he was born on September 8, 1965, in Bakersfield, CA and lived there until the family moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon, in 1971. Darryl grew up going to church five days a week and playing lots of sports. Darryl spent most of his adult years working in the Portland, Oregon, bulk mailing business. He was always loved by coworkers and made friends wherever he went. Darryl Parnell is one of seven kids, a Father of 6 children himself, and a Grandfather to 11 grandchildren. He loved supporting his children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews in their various sports and activities whenever he could. Darryl loved fishing. However, his biggest passion was sports, and football was his favorite! A diehard Cowboy fan, it would be rare for him ever to miss watching a game, and he knew every stat or record the team has ever held. Darryl also spent several years coaching in the Southridge Youth Football League in Beaverton, Oregon, where he touched and motivated the lives of many young players.

 

I hope that my friends and family will join me in supporting my two best friends and their family during this time. These are two people I have known for over 24-years. We have experienced so much life together that when we experience loss, it hits us hard, and we feel the pain as if it hit us the same. I do not know where I would be in this life without these two being there to navigate adolescence, high school, first loves, first heartbreaks, laughter, giving me god-children, and their best gift to date, our friendship. They aren't asking for much; I am asking for whatever we can give them because I don't know what I would do if I lost a parent right now. I do know that I would be supported by the loving community I have surrounding me. My hope is to show my friends and their family the love you have shown me during my own journey.

Please help me provide them with some light during this dark period.
 
Sincerely yours,
 
Jessica Black
Fighter of cancer
Not dying from but living with cancer
Supporting my cancer community