Nani, Clora (Coco) Buchanan

My name is Shenandoah Smith. My Nani, Clora (Coco) Buchanan, was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer in her uterus in February of 2025. On Tuesday, June 10th, Nani was set to have a hysterectomy to hopefully get ahead of the cancer and give us more time. This surgery was unsuccessful due to the amount of scar tissue present. That next night, Wednesday, she was rushed back to the ER via ambulance due to being in immense pain, vomiting, and her stomach being distended. Upon admittance, they found a nick in her small intestines. Thursday, June 12th, she was taken back for surgery again to repair her small intestine. We continued to monitor her, and she had developed a gray/green tint to her skin. Saturday, June 14th, she was taken back for surgery again due to developing necrotizing fasciitis. This surgery came with its own complications, but we were told the recovery was what had her doctors more worried. Nani now had an open wound from the top of her stomach down to her left hip. On Monday, June 16th, they went back in for surgery to remove more necrotic flesh and tissue from the infection spreading. This extended her wound to the middle of her chest, and it was now about 4 inches wide. During this surgery, they intubated her, and we have not been able to extubate her since. She is in multi-organ failure, this cancer (still unknown) is untreatable, the infection is still an unknown risk, and now doctors have advised us that this open wound is not something that she can recover from with everything else. We, as a family, have made the hardest decision of our lives to stop life-saving measures and move forward with comfort care as our main priority. On Friday, June 20th, Nani was successfully extubated. Our hope is that she is able to safely and comfortably be transported to the hospice unit at the hospital so she can spend her remaining time with her family. Nani has told us that she is not afraid and that she has lived a good life and is happy with that, so we are doing our best to honor her wishes.

If you knew Nani, you loved Nani, and she loved you. She has never met a stranger and expressed her love in every way that she knew how, and it showed. She has had many roles in her life: daughter, friend, aunt, wife, cousin, mother, grandmother, and even great-grandmother, but I truly believe that being a mother and a grandmother was her favorite. I was once told that she was "grandma shaped," and that is the perfect way to describe her because she was created to be a grandma to not only her grandchildren but to all children that met her.

Nani and Papaw have been married for almost 49 years. They have 4 children together, 8 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren together. We have been blessed to love her and be loved by her and will forever cherish the time we have had with her. Our goal with this fundraiser is to lessen the financial load on Papaw so that he can grieve on his own time. They do not have life insurance or any type of financial plan set up. We are hoping to pay any remaining medical expenses, cremation services, a celebration of life, and any other expenses that we can help Papaw with through this time. We thank you in advance for any donations or prayers that we receive.