Hello, my name is Paige Silliman. Whether you know me or not, you may have been one of the many (very lucky) people, that knew and loved not only my grandmother Carolyn Ross, but my great grandmother Melissa Schuppenhauer as well. On friday November 19th, my great grandmother passed away peacefully in her sleep.. and unbeknownst to us, our lives would only continue to fall apart.. Within 72 hours of losing our great grandmother (grandma, mother) our grandma Carolyn Ross fell ill.. unlike herself but still stubborn, she tried to stick it out at home, until Wednesday November 24th rolled around, when she decided she needed to go to thr ER. Not knowing that day, that when she walked in those doors, she would never walk out of them again, she was admitted with pneumonia.. Come to find out, COVID-Pneumonia. My grandmother suffered from COPD and the doctors knew immediately due to her already bad condition that there may not be much they could do. She spent her last holiday, and her first without her mom, in a hospital bed alone, unable to have visitors.. She updated family and told us she was feeling a lot better, but her oxygen levels had continuously dropped for the days she was admitted. Saturday morning i was called from UPMC Chautauqua and my family was forced to make a decision to have her intubated or not because she maxed out on the Bi-pap machine (which was used to help her breathe) (it no longer was enough to help her breathe) ..they told me we had minutes to make this decision and that we needed to be aware that although this last measure of intubation was the last step they could take to save her life, that it would also, infact probably not be effective enough either to save her life, as her lungs had been essentially destroyed from the illness.. they called me two hours after intubating her and said that she was not going to make it though the day.. they allowed us to gown/mask up and say our goodbyes to our grandmother on the ventilator.. (but I believe her spirit was already gone even though the machine was keeping her alive)... I watched the oxygen levels drop, rise one or two times then drop again. The machines made to sustain and save lives werent even enough... "the damage done because of her prior health conditions, there was just nothing we could do" ... After a day of visits from many of her loved ones, she passed away at 11:34pm on November 27th, 2021... & with a broken heart, I am writing this today in hopes that we can gather some help from those in our community to help us in having a proper service for my grandmother, Carolyn Ross.

As my great grandmother Melissa decided prior to her death to donate her body to science, our family has not had a chance to mourn her passing, we find it extremely important to be able to have a service for THE MOST loving, patient, kind, caring woman that we love. Her insurance ONLY covers a direct cremation but any additional services (a funeral service itself) is not covered and we are looking at $1200 MINIMUM that must be paid up front before we are able to say our true and final goodbyes, properly, not with her hooked to machines. Which means, without us pulling the funds together, we will also not get to say goodbye to her... She deserves a goodbye.. her of all people in this world....


Any and all donations will go directly to the funeral services. You may also contact the Hubert Funeral Home in Jamestown, ny to make direct donations. Thank you so much.