Rally for Rayna Klein

We are starting this GoFundMe on behalf of a brave Roslyn family who has been dealt an unthinkable set of circumstances, and now needs our support.

In 2019, our Roslyn community member Marsha Schuckman Klein was diagnosed with an inoperable tumor around her heart. Marsha knew this diagnosis meant she had limited time left with her family: her husband Saul, her four year-old daughter Rayna and her two-year old daughter Abigail who were both in preschool at the time. Although Marsha was often extremely sick from both the cancer and her treatments, she devoted herself to preparing her family for life once she could no longer be with them. With the time she had left, Marsha made many final arrangements, calls and went to meetings to make sure her girls would get the help they needed. Rayna, at the time, a precocious four year-old, was unfortunately present and aware as her mother became progressively more sick. That summer, just a few months after being diagnosed, Marsha passed away, leaving her little girls confused, shocked, and devastated. Her husband Saul did his best to be everything to his girls while also trying to financially support the family and maintain the status quo, while caring for his girls despite acutely grieving his beloved wife.

The past three years have been a difficult journey as the family tried to navigate not just their own personal loss, but soon after the shared trauma of Covid, being home and not having access to in-person grief counseling, and having life shift from a tragic new normal yet again to an even more challenging set of circumstances and way to live.

This year, just as the family had started to find some footing again after the back to back traumas of Marsha’s death and the pandemic, the absolutely unimaginable happened when Rayna, now a second grader, was diagnosed with a different, but serious form of cancer, requiring substantial treatment over many months, including a difficult surgery and in-patient chemotherapy three to four days a week. Rayna is currently using a walker to move around and has a full brace over one leg. While in the hospital Rayna needs to be accompanied by an adult at all times; however, due to Covid restrictions only four adults are allowed to be a part of her caretaking rotation, draining the resources of an already highly stressed family.

Saul, who is self-employed, has not been able to work at full capacity, while he cares for Rayna and accompanies her to the hospital and arranges all of her necessary care. Through all of this process, the family will have to endure the many expenses associated with a serious illness, including requiring additional care and activities for Abigail, private nurses and meals, compounded by a single-dad already being taxed as the sole breadwinner for his family.

While cancer is obviously a devastating diagnosis for any child, in this case it is further exacerbated by the family’s recent devastating loss and Rayna’s knowledge of her mother’s illness and untimely passing.

This family is proud and resilient, but they are also overwhelmed and in need of whatever help and support we can provide.