Help my Papa after losing his wife of 45 years

Allow me to introduce my father, Truman McElveen. He just lost his wife, my mama, after 45 years of marriage. My mom was a strong woman. She was a feisty woman. More than that, she was my father's caretaker. She took care of everything. My dad has a heart history including a triple bypass and several stents. He has a bad hip/bad knees and severe anxiety. My mother paid all the bills, tracked all the money, and brought in almost 2/3 of their monthly income. Both of them were on a fixed income via social security, but my mother was able to work part-time. My father's will to take over this situation far succeeds his ability. Without her income, Papa won't have enough money to even pay all the bills, much less have money for incidentals, medical bills, medication for his own condition, groceries, etc. I am hoping the Go Fund Me family will find it in your hearts to donate to this sweet, gentle man who is absolutely lost without his love of 45 years.

My dad has been a resident in his small town in Louisiana for over 70 years. He and my mom got married in 1977 and were married for over 45 years. Recently, in January of this year, my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer called cholangiocarcinoma. She was given eleven months with treatment and she chose to pursue the treatment. However, on February 15th, she began to have low oxygen and some altered mentation. Her doctor insisted she be evaluated in the ER for blood clots in her lungs. That scan was clear, however, she was diagnosed with altered mentation related to hypoxia and fluid overload and admitted to ICU for symptom management and oxygen requirements.

We were moving in the right direction. We had a good day on the 18th. So much family came to visit her in the hospital after she got stepped down to a lesser acuity floor. She was smiling and enjoying her family's company. The 19th was a little rougher. She was not as joyful, she seemed down and a little more confused. But she was still with us intermittently. By Monday, she was definitely worse off. She was retaining fluid, unable to void her bladder, and ended up needing an indwelling foley catheter.

She was eventually moved to the hematology/oncology floor where she could be more strategically managed. However, she was in much worse shape than we realized. In the middle of the night on the 22nd, she suddenly required much higher amounts of oxygen and they had to transition her to something called Vapotherm, which allows a machine to give very high amounts of oxygen with a lot of force. It started to become obvious with the high O2 requirements, she would be facing intubation; something she would not tolerate well. I had to make the agonizing decision, with my father's blessing, to make her a DNR/DNI (Do Not Resuscitate / Do Not Intubate). I thought, at that point, that was the hardest thing I would ever have to do in my life. Until I had to move her to comfort care measures, as it became obvious she was not going to recover from this. Comfort care was initiated on the 23rd and she passed peacefully on the 24th at 10:05 am, surrounded by family who all loved her dearly. Saying goodbye to this woman took every amount of strength I had in my body. I lay on her chest for what seemed like forever, waiting to hear her heart beat again, but I was met with complete silence. Any donation will go to help make sure my dad doesn’t have to try and get part time job with his many health issues. Thank you in advance. ❤️ love and peace to you all.