Hello everyone, we are raising funds on behalf of our beloved grandmother Maria Chirinos Flores. Our grandmother Maria, native from Peru, has always been a strong, independent woman who dedicated her whole life to her family, raising her only child Emma Jessie, and also helping raise her two granddaughters, Jessie Evelyn and Grace, when her daughter had to work full-time as her daughters were growing up. Despite becoming a widow and missing her dear husband every day, it did not stop her from always caring for and giving love to her family. She was the one always offering help, not only to her daughter and son-in-law Roger, but she would also give support to her siblings, nephews, and even take care of stray dogs by offering them food and shelter. She has always been a wonderful example of helping others without hesitation, as well as having the patience to hear and provide comfort and advice to others during difficult times. She was very resourceful despite not going to university, as she had married young and soon after became a mother. She learned how to sew, tailor, cook, paint fine art, and other skills that later served her in life, for example, baking birthday cakes for everyone in the family, helping our mom create her wedding dress, making our birthday dresses, creating beautiful paintings that decorated her home, and many other things. After we moved to the US, our grandmother Maria would come every other year to visit us and enjoy Christmas and birthdays with us. We all loved having her come for these cherished moments.

During one of her trips to visit us in November of 2012, she suffered a brain stroke due to an aneurysm that had ruptured. That was the moment when everything changed for her and us. She was taken to the newly opened Einstein Hospital’s ER. As it was brand new and they didn’t have the equipment to perform surgery, she was transferred by ambulance to their main hospital in Philadelphia. She made it through a lengthy 6-hour surgery where they had to open her skull and repair her aneurysm. We were grateful to the doctors who saved her life and all the nurses and staff who cared for her 24/7 for the next 3 months until she made it home. She received some home visits from OT, Speech, and Physical Therapy, but as she didn’t qualify for these services, the therapies stopped, and we had to become resourceful in finding care for her and continuing therapy at home without professional help. In the following years, she has been admitted to the ER multiple times on different occasions as her ailments and health have declined as a result of the aneurysm that caused permanent damage, leading to weakness on the right side of her body and signs of dementia that have progressed over the years. In the last three years, her health has declined much more, now affecting her kidneys and heart, adding more struggles to her fragile health. Mentally, nowadays, she cannot always remember who we are, what year it is, or that she has a 10-year-old great grandson named Alex, but we know that deep in her heart and when she has some moments of mental clarity, she loves us with all her heart and likes to hold our hand tight.

On Saturday, we took our grandmother to Paoli Hospital as we noticed she started breathing with difficulty for the last couple of days, and she was having a cough and other symptoms. We also saw her oxygen levels rapidly decreasing. Once she was admitted into the hospital, she received two blood transfusions and antibiotics to combat the symptoms. Doctors found pneumonia, water in her lungs, complications with her kidneys, very low hemoglobin, and her heart working overtime to compensate, elevating her blood pressure to 175/55. We also received the news that it looks like there is not much to do at this point. Doctors are trying to stabilize her and give her some sedatives so she is not in pain. There’s the possibility of not having much time left with her, and this has us deeply heartbroken, but we continue praying to God, asking for strength during this difficult time and to give her comfort and take away her pain. This also means that we need to cover all of her expenses, and in this economy, as we all struggle and live paycheck to paycheck, we are worried that we will not be able to meet expenses. This is why we are creating this GoFundMe to ask for your generosity during this very unfortunate and difficult time. God bless you all. Please keep our grandmother Maria in your thoughts and prayers. Profoundly grateful - The Riera-Barrientos Family (10/20/2025)