Help Sanchez Family with Covid Relief Fund

Hello. My name is Anabel Sanchez, and Raul Sanchez was my father. Raul was born August 6, 1954 in Panama City, Panama. He attended the Instituto Pan-Americano as a teenager and afterward became a certified accountant. In the 90's he eventually left Panama to join me and my mom in Florida, where he would make his living for the rest of his life.

 

 

A hard-worker, he was a successful senior accountant whose final job was working for Chiquita Brands, known for the famous Chiquita bananas. But even with his success and the challenges he would occasionally face, he never forgot about his family in Panama. Nearly every year, he would take vacation to spend time with them, go on trips with them, and to simply spend time with them, having conversations well into the night. And more often than not, he took me with him. To him, family was everything.

 

 

He liked basketball, and played it well. He was also a fan of the Brazilian soccer team, the New York Yankees (particularly when Mariano Rivera was playing for them), and he loved a cigar with a cold mug of beer. He was a collector of sports memorabilia and loved music, especially Salsa.

 

 

His biggest passion in his later years would become running as he started off as a member of the Hollywood Run Club. Then he would run independently, but always accompanied by the usual suspects, his friends, Ayenza, Guillermo, Hirama, and many others. He won many medals over the years participating in numerous half marathons, 5k and 10k's across Florida.

 

 

But more than anything, he loved creating moments with the people around him and he loved life. He was super active and didn't enjoy solitude for long. He was in the truest sense a people-person who liked to laugh, share wise insight, and jump into the occasional debate.

 

On August 18, 2021, I took my dad to Memorial Regional Hospital after he contracted COVID-19. And within days, the virus severely weakened him. Within the first week, he spent most of his hospitalization recovering from the onset of COVID, sleeping a lot.

 

 

By week two, they had given him a higher level of oxygen, and his oxygenation was still around the 90-and-under mark. By August 30, they decided to intubate him due to the instability of his oxygenation, which hovered at an 85. When they put me on the phone with him prior to his intubation, the last thing I told him is that we were rooting for him, we were praying for him, and that I loved him. And he said, "Okay. Okay. I love you too."

 

On September 16, 2021, my dad died from cardiac arrest after his hemoglobin gradually dropped and his vital signs soon followed after. He was 67 years old. This is the second death my family has endured due to Covid-19 this year, with the first one being his sister, Osiris, who passed in January 2021. Needless to say, we are devastated. 

 

 

My dad was my hero, my rock, my confidant, and a best friend. And while he certainly wasn't perfect, he was smart, handsome, quick-witted, thoughtful, and fun. And with every photograph I look at of him, I realize more and more just why people gravitated to him. In nearly every photo of him, he was always smiling, always having a good time. Everyone always told me how unique it was that I was so close to him because we got along like friends. But it wasn't strange to me. Not when I knew he loved me unconditionally and always did his best to impart onto me that we were a team---the only two from my dad's family who chose to build a life in America. 

 

With his painful passing, I am now forced to deal with a tough and unwanted reality because for the first time, I am alone when he didn't mean to leave me. And this was something my dad, who had prided himself on being healthy and strong, didn't foresee. Now, I'm living in a two-bedroom apartment that I now have to sustain as a college student who doesn't have a job because she'd made a deal with her amazing dad who wanted to support her so that she could finish college quickly. 

Where the funeral is concerned, I want to fulfill his longstanding wish to be buried next to his mother and sister in Colinas de La Paz, in Arraijan, Panama. It was a plot he invested in when my grandmother died, knowing that one day, he would return home. While, with the grace of God, certain wonderful friends of his in Florida are able to cover his cremation and church service here in Florida, it's the Panamanian services and surviving after his loss that I now need help with.

 

 

I currently don't have access to his account and am in the middle of working his future arrangements out while desperately trying not to overwhelm myself. I currently am very financially restrained and since I was a full time student working on my final year and a half of university at UF, I don't have funds coming in at the moment. Although my parents divorced years ago, my mom wants to help me so bad, but she is disabled and currently recovering and doing rehabilitation that resulted from a third stroke that impacted her in May 2021. And so, unfortunately, what small monetary aid she can spare is severely limited.

And so, now, I am alone, I am scared, I am worried, endure sleepless nights, and am wondering how the next few months are going to go when I can't work until I come back (hopefully) from Panama after burying him. Due to the high levels of funeral services needed during this peak Covid-19 Delta variant cycle here in South Florida, the processing of his death certificate will take longer than normal (2 weeks), which keeps my hands tied for the rest of September.



As his only descendant, all of the decisions concerning him are up to me, and yet I still also have to worry about what will become of me in trying to hold down the fort over the next few months until I can get a job. And I am bracing myself tightly against the medical bills, Internet bill, rent, utilities, and his car loan bills to mount up, potentially weighing me further down. 

And so, that's why I'm humbly asking anyone who has taken the time to read this to please consider donating to this fund to support me in dealing with the aftermath of my father's death and my mission to honor my father's wishes to take him back home where he belongs and give him the send-off he deserves with his family and people who loved him.

It would be such a blessing to not have to worry about further financial instability, as the base price of just the burial and service alone at Colinas de La Paz is roughly $2,000+. But every cent counts and no amount is too small. I know that this is a terrible and scary era that we are living in. And many people are in trouble. But I do believe in humanity and the human spirit and I hope that anyone is generous enough to help. 

To be completely transparent, I do need the funds as soon as possible as I'm attempting to go to Panama after the 6th of October to bury my dad, if by some miracle this all works out. And whatever funds are left will go to paying utilities, rent, groceries, medical bills, medical and car insurance, my dad's car loan, and other related expenses for the next few months until I can get back on my feet.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and please, even if you can't donate, do consider sharing this. If anything, please keep me and my family in your prayers. Have a blessed day.