Nicole Cardoza Family Medical Expenses

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. The Nicole and Edward Cardoza family has had way more than its share of bad things in the past 5 years. When he was 7 years old, Nick Cardoza was diagnosed with pineal gland cancer. When she was 39 years old, Nick's mother, Nicole, was diagnosed with Stage 4 uterine cancer, which metastasized in spite of several years of intensive treatment. Nick has been in remission for 4 years, but we lost our dear Nicole in May 2021, just weeks short of her and Edward's 25th wedding anniversary. Nicole's passing left her five children and her husband without the rock in their lives even through the worst of her cancer treatment. And it left her friends and colleagues without the sunshine that was Nicole.

Nicole worked at Alpine Public Library for more than 9 years. She was as dedicated to the library as she was dedicated to everything—and everyone—she committed to. Throughout Nick's illness and throughout her own, she never stopped smiling at patrons, she never stopped working as hard as she could, she never stopped hoping. She was a woman of phenomenal faith, and that faith carried her through times that would have broken most of us.

Both Nick and Nicole traveled dozens of times to treatment centers outside Alpine, Nick to Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin, and Nicole to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. There was no financial help—no gas money, no hotel money, no food money, no medical bill money. There was also no whining, no feeling sorry for themselves, no “Why me?” This good family followed the lead of their center—Nicole—and carried on without complaining and without asking for help.

Now, though, it's time for those of us who know them and who are lu

cky enough to call them our friends and family to step up. The Cardoza family has amassed huge illness-related bills for both Nick's and Nicole's treatment. Not only must the family work through the grief of losing their mother and wife, they must find ways of knitting their life back together under the weight of a debt that few families could shoulder.

This is a family that does not deserve what happened to it. It is also not a family that is wringing its hands and giving up. They are working hard to dig out from under this debt, but they need our help. It's our turn to dig deep and help them. It's what Nicole deserves. It’s what we should do.

Thank you.