On August 27th, 2023 we woke up to Ron asking us to take the blankets off of him and to help adjust his position in bed. Little did I know that seconds after helping him upright, I would watch him take his last breath of life in my arms.

Ron was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer early December 2021. His survival rate was slim due to the type and stage and because of that he decided he was going to live out the rest of his life on his terms.

Ron was first and foremost a United States Marine 0811. Ron enlisted in the Marine Corps right out of high school. He joined many other Marines in boot camp at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. After his training in boot camp he tried a few different specialty jobs before he found artillery 0811. He always told me that he has lived an extraordinary life being given the chance to travel around the globe twice. Italy, Egypt, Australia, Greece, Japan, Hawaii, Norway were just a few of his favorite places he got to see. He spend almost 10 years and 2 tours. He spent those years as a friend, a soldier and a leader serving his country for the United States Marine Corps.

Ron became corrections officer at Minnesota Correctional Facility Stillwater a couple years after returning to Minnesota from the millitary. He worked his way up becoming a Sargent at the correctional facility. In July 2022 he had resign after spending almost 17 years working at MCF Stillwater. He was 1 month shy of his 17 year anniversary working at the prison, 7 months after his initial diagnosis of cancer. The state of Minnesota wouldn't grant Ron early retirement even after he gave them 17 years of his life serving for the state.

He was an amazing husband, father, son, officer, friend and warrior. He has left behind his wife, Jill, of almost 20 years, his 25 year old step son, Taylor and is 21 year old step daughter, Katie, his teacup chihuahua Princess Peach, Bruno, Gunner, and Jack, his other family members, and countless amounts of friends that span the whole world. His love for his family, the Marine Corps and his friends were what he lived his life around daily. This is what he needed to be complete.

Ron went to the doctor when he started feeling funny. The doctor told him he should get a colonoscopy done. He called a local clinic to get the appointment set up to have this procedure done. He was told that the insurance company that provided is health insurance would not cover a colonoscopy at his age. It took almost 4 months to finally get this approved so he could finally be seen for the procedure. After the procedure it still took a few weeks to get the results read to us. In early December 2021, we drove to the clinic to meet with the doctor to find out what was going on with him. We sat down in a sterile office and waited for the doctor to come in. When she came in, she introduced herself and read the results. Terminal Metastatic (stage IV) colorectal cancer. She implied that life was going to be short.

Our next step was making appointments at Mayo Clinic in Rochester Mn. The soonest they could see him was the second week of January. He took the time off work, I closed the doors on my business and we traveled to Rochester for the three day process of testing and result reading. The First morning we drive to Mayo at 6 am to get him going with the day long schedule of appointments to be turned away because we did not have a referral. The next set of appointments was a month out.

While working at MCF Stillwater he contracted covid in late January. The prison called him at almost 10pm Sunday night and alerted him that his covid test was positive. The federal guidelines for quarantine had just changed to 5 days, so I thought we were safe. Ron was sick with symptoms for 1 day thankfully. We camped on the huge couch and played Harry Potter for the week. I called Mayo the Friday before his Monday appointment and was honest with them on the phone. I had no idea that Mayo would turn him away after being locked up in the house for 8 days prior to his appointment, again. They did.

The next set of available appointments for the testing he needed wasn't until the middle of April. He had the right referral from the right office from the right doctor this time, however as I was driving to the hospital to meet Ron for his appointments and testing, my car hit glare ice on highway 52 where I ended up in an accident and could not attend. Ron made it to his appointments but couldn't stay there for the other days of team doctor result readings knowing I had just been in a severe accident and was being doctored at home. We found out when he had more testing done at Mayo, his cancer had spread to his liver and lungs in that short amount of time from his diagnosis in December to treatment appointment in April.

If Blue Cross did not have age limits on colonoscopies and we could have had it diagnosed when Ron first tried to have the procedure done, and Mayo Clinic would have figured out an acceptation on their testing in a timely manner instead of pushing him out a month at a time, my husband and step father to my children would still be alive today fulfilling his life's dreams.

Ron started really getting sick the last 6 months of his life. He didn't want to talk about anything that had to do with him dying. When Ron quit his job, I closed the doors on my business because I had to take care of him and the constant pain he lived in until he died. We drained all of the retirement accounts and bank accounts so he could be seen at the VA in Tampa where their cancer center was. We packed the dogs up, and drove to Florida. He ran into many problems with the VA in Florida also. Our house was foreclosed on last October.

On August 25th 2023, I received eviction paperwork in the mail two days before Ron passed away, for a court hearing that was set for September 6th, the day before his funeral. The court was gracious enough to give me a different date for this hearing, a few weeks out from his celebration of life.

I am asking for help for his funeral expenses and to help me get situated on the east coast where I can start to rebuild my life and open a new business in his memory and honor.