My Brother Darren's Final Expenses Please Help

Hi, my name is Robin, and I'm fundraising for my Brother Darren's children to help them with final burial expenses when the time comes. There is no insurance in place to cover this. All funds generously donated will go to help pay for his final expenses.

With everything going on in the world today, it is understandable to be hesitant to give to any unknown entity. Most of you do not know me, or have never met me, so I wanted to add a picture above to help see who I was. It is nice to meet you. Rest assured that No personal information is shared at all on this page. Nothing is seen other than the amount that is generously donated and the name provided if you choose to do so. Please know ALL funds donated go directly into an account that is set up specifically for this cause which will be transferred to the children to help pay their daddy's final burial expenses when that time comes.

Funerals along with the plot and headstones can cost upwards in the thousands. This is a huge amount of stress placed on the children. Please, if you feel it in your heart, share this page to everyone you know in order to get the word out. The family and I appreciate you so much. God bless.

These are his children from left to right: Shawn, Brittany and Stephen

Update on Darren's Status 8/7 :

It is with a heavy broken heart that I post this morning.

From his daughter

Daddy has passed away (8/6 around 10pm)

All day the we had been playing music in his room and I finally decided to play our song, Butterfly Kisses. I watched my sweet daddy take his finally breath. He was surrounded by the children and and their mom.

Please continue to pray for family and the upcoming days ahead Thank you everyone for your prayers , generous donations and continued support. The gofundme page will remain open for the children until final arrangements are made.

God bless you all

May the good Lord hold my brother in his arms as he receives him in the Kingdom of Heaven. What a glorious day it will be for Darren to walk with the Lord; No more sorrow No more pain for him. Yea, though I walk through the valley of shadow of death I do not fear evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Psalm 23: 4 Thank you everyone for your prayers, generous donations and continued support

This is a picture of Darren and I in February 2022

He has Stage 4 Cirrhosis of the Liver and has been given 6 months to live. It is considered Terminal. He is fighting with everything he has in him, but knows his Liver is not working nor will things heal. God Bless him.

*He was found in the little camper he lived in passed out before taking him to the hospital. They believe he had been lying there for approximately 18 hours.

Darren graduated highschool in 1978 in Mississippi, and completed a degree in Chemistry shortly afterwards. He went down an exciting path in his life, from playing different sports, owning a landscaping business where he met some very prominent people in the golf industry to being able to travel the world with his family. For years he enjoyed hobbies such as umpiring for men's baseball leagues and was an avid golfer.

He has a beautiful family and wonderful friends which he loved spending time with all of them as making memories that last a lifetime with each one was so important to him. His family was his heart and talked about them often in conversation. He has met so many people through his walk on Earth, positively touching all their lives. It is a true blessing and honor to be one of those people.

As we get older our lives move into different unexpected paths, of no fault to anyone. Darren has lived alone for some time now, umpiring games as he could until his health gave way to the point of where he couldn't. When we visited him in February he had told me he already missed umpiring 20 games because of his health. He has been battling depression along with diabetes, skin infections, dehydration, the list could go on. His health is continuing to decline quickly. He was hospitalized many times but over a short span of time, with the most recent being the worst in June / July 2022. He has many health issues going on as seen below which is not by in any means an exahustive list.

My visit with him over the weekend (7/23)

Darren is at the stage in his cirrhosis diagnosis that he will be unable to take care of himself any more. You can see in the picture how swollen his stomach area is; this is the build up of fluid from the liver not working. His right arm is also paralyzed, along with his eyes / skin turning yellow. He not long ago had a blood transfusion too. He had 3 surgeries scheduled in 3 days to cut away the dead tissue in his back area. The infections have entered his spine along with other areas. This is such heartbreaking news for all of us, from Family to Friends alike.

The family will be deciding soon of his palliative care moving forward from this point. I wanted to help out as much as possible with the final expenses and if you see it in your hearts to donate it will be greatly appreciated. He has decided he wants to be buried in Pensacola for final resting, which this expense will be costly. The family is going through such a difficult time processing everything as it has moved so quickly.

My older son and I visisted him for about 2 hours over the weekend (7/23-24) and my heart was broken. I was blessed as God gave me the opportunity of talking to him about having his spirit / heart ready to be received into the kingdom of heaven when his time comes, a slight tear dropped on his sweet face and when asked if he was ready, he said in one word without hestitation , "Absolutely" !! God bless him, My tears flowed.

Along with this while watching a baseball game, Darren looking at the TV in a short word or two calling the pitches from the Astros game as a "Strike" or "Out". He still had those umpire skills in tact folks. And I'm sure had Golf been on he would have pointed out the par for the course as well. My son let him know that he plays with my dad's golf clubs all the time, and Darren's eyes just lit up then once again cracked a smile. I know it made him so happy.

It was incredible as it was like God gave me a moment to walk back in time with him, reminiscing about when we used to slide off the roof into the snow when we were younger living in Spencerville, and once again he cracked a small smile.

He even during our visit made a funny joke, I asked him how old he was, and he said "58 he was sticking with that" I said wait a minute that makes me old, your the old fella. Once again a short smile.

You have to understand, Darren has not been saying anything much other than a few words if that at a time. So him speaking to us and acknowledging things we were saying, well This was a blessing to see!!

Darren when first taken into ICU

Darren Hallucinates often, seeing family members that have passed away to seeing shadows. When my son and I were there with him he saw our grandmother, and his Uncle Johnny as well. He was speaking with them asking if they could help him. I told him they were there to comfort him during this difficult time. He did have other sporadic moments while we were there that he called out for our Mama and it just broke my heart in two.

Again, thank you so much for your prayers, generous donations and support; it means the world to our family.

Thank you for being a blessing,

Robin Volheim Norris,

(Darren's Sister)