Hello my name is Mindy and my life long partner is Justin. We are thanking you to take the time to read our story. Justin is a cancer survivor from non Hodgkin lymphoma stage 3 at age 4 and chemotherapy 1 year and Mantafield for 5 weeks to head neck and chest. He loved playing baseball and wrestling up through high school. He volunteered to be a lifeguard , at age 15-17 volunteered the fire department as a explorer then at age 18 started with the Forrest service as a paid call then went on to medic school from fire academy to become a full time fire medic. Early on in justin’s career he was sidelined by the flu vaccine reaction and was diagnosed with Guillian Barre syndrome which ended justin’s career with the fire department. Justin was paralyzed in a wheelchair for two years and 8 months in a rehabilitation hospital and had to learn everything all over again. After recovering he then became a project engineer and started his own construction business.

in 2010 had a traumatic brain injury again back into a rehabilitation hospital for 8 months. Then 3 years later had a left frontal lobe stroke back at rehabilitation hospital for another 8 months.

2015 Justin met me the love of his life lol. Getting to know each other more we found out we were pretty compatible and ment to be together. I’m a huge Nicholas Sparks fan and read all his books and watch his movies since they show and are based mainly in North Carolina justin and I decided to move and buy our very first home together in 2021 and found peace with a slower paced life and extremely nice people. Immediately we started looking for doctors at Duke University Hospital. Justin received a mitral valve in June 3,2024 then a pacemaker November 2024. He then had gotten a tooth infection January 2025 which led to having surgery and removal of his tooth to biopsy his jaw bone to find out he had two different kinds of infections. During his admit after his tooth extraction of the infected tooth he was admitted back into the hospital, Justin has damaged veins from chemotherapy and radiation so he always needs a ultrasound guided IV insert unfortunately at this hospital admit the L Vac team came in and on accident hit brachial artery and nerve that caused hemorrhage and 5 surgeries later he was finally released to recover. Justin never recovered from his open heart surgery and we were well aware of the risks. I noticed he started to decline and June 28, 2025 admitted to WakeMed and then transferred to Duke University Hospital. He does not qualify for heart transplant due to the type of radiation that was given as a child. Doctors said given his medical complexity his life expectancy is 6 months to a year. We feel that god has already written justin’s story and he is the only one who knows when Justin time will end. Justin was able to give me the wedding of my dreams in November 2022 but due to medical restrictions we were unable to sign marriage certificate.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story we are beyond grateful and however we do understand times can be tough we just hope our story can inspire others to stay strong when faced with adversity.

We were recently able to celebrate Justins 49th birthday with friends and family came to celebrate such a wonderful day having us feel blessed and honored with love and support from family, friends and our community. I am now a full time caregiver to Justin and any donation would be greatly appreciated it’s been tough to pay our mortgage , bills , car expenses and food in our fridge

God Bless you

Kind regards

Justin and Mindy