Johnnie Rae passed away at home with me in the early hours of this morning . My mom has lived with me for going on 18 years now, and I have been her main sole caregiver, though my grown children have helped when they could.

She came to live with me after leaving a bad marriage, and so we have traveled together through her divorce, surgeries, and after we moved back to Atlanta in 2011, her journey through dementia, physical health decline, a house fire in 2017, the Covid years, and now we are at the end of her life.

One is never prepared emotionally for such a thing, no matter how we may imagine ourselves to be. As it happens, the insurance policy that I bought for her is woefully inadequate for her final wishes.

Cremation is not an option. She has been mortally afraid of the idea, and I will not do that to her against her wishes. She wants to be laid to rest in the plot held for her next to her beloved husband, Larry Sanders, in NW Florida in our family cemetery. I have researched the cost of this, and even with the most modest casket possible, the burial arrangements will be somewhere in the $11k-13k range, plus I need to be able to travel to NW Florida and have a place to stay while I am there.

I have scrounged and scrimped, and have come up with a very small amount toward these expenses, and have made application to another source which may be able to help with some of the expenses, too. I am asking for the entire amount here, but will be sure to let you all know when/if I am able to raise money toward these expenses so that we can shut down the fundraiser once the needed funds are definite.