Cancer. The thief of many family members, friends, and people we may never meet. My Mother explained it in a way that truly explains the pain involved with Cancer.

“We are born, and we also shall die. We hope that everything else in between is enough; enough time, enough love, enough hope, enough laughs, enough tears, enough dreams….just enough!!! We step outside into the world, and we feel the sun, we are happy, we smile, enough feels like enough in that moment.

In an instant everything changes, thunder crashes, lighting strikes! It’s dark and scary. The storm tries to destroy everything in its path…

Three years ago, his daughters heard the thunder, they felt the lightning and they saw the darkness. They called this raging storm “Cancer”!”

Three years ago, My Father was diagnosed with throat cancer and began the journey of what we hoped would calm this storm. Back in October of 2020 he started Chemotherapy and Radiation. Once he finished his treatments, he had serious complications from radiation that left his vocal cord paralyzed and then it got infected. In the middle of the night, it became seriously swollen which blocked his airway and he was rushed to the hospital to have an emergency Tracheostomy. After several months with his trach and having to learn how to breathe on his own again we thought he had survived this storm, we thought he’d have more time with his family. Roughly 6 months later we learned his cancer was back and the doctors chose to do a Neck Dissection in hopes to go in and remove as much as they could. This was determined not to be successful when a PET scan showed the cancer was back, so then he was scheduled to go through another round of Chemo and radiation. Once again, he finished his second round of treatments and it appeared he all was good and was finally in remission, or so we thought. February of this year after doing a routine follow up PET scan, it showed that the cancer was back and was growing very rapidly. He was told that radiation was not an option this time and surgery was the best route to take to try to remove as much as they could. After meeting with the surgeon and reviewing all the scans, he was told that one of the two tumors was completely wrapped around his carotid artery, so surgery was not an option. After hearing this news, he was flown to Houston Texas by a very good friend to visit a doctor at MD Anderson Cancer Hospital to get a second opinion. After meeting with the MD Anderson doctor, they confirmed that surgery was too dangerous and was no longer an option. After all of this time and all of the effort he has put forth, working long days, trying to support himself, his family, and pay medical bills, we are at a point where we must ask for help. Asking for help is not in my Father’s vocabulary, but we are all asking for help so he can do what’s most important. Spending time with his children, with his family and the people who mean most to him.

My last attempt to help him, is for me to start this fundraiser to help with the costs of treatment, help with the cost of his bills, and help to give him more time. Time with his family. He will likely miss out on his daughter’s college graduations, on their wedding days, and the children I’m sure we will have some day. In this fundraiser I am hoping for any help, just to get more time with the person who means the most to us all. Dad was always selfless and hardworking. A great friend and an amazing Father. He is our best friend and a good friend to many.

He always said that we are his world, but in our world he has always been there from day one. It truly crushes us all to think of him not being with us for more of our lives. My only hope is that he will get to spend enough time with us before it is his time in this storm to say his goodbyes, even though no time is enough. Any help will be greatly appreciated as it will allow him more time with his family during this terrible storm that has taken over our family. Please, if you can help, do so, if you cannot, we all understand, as we are all weathering our own storm. But please share so he can have that much more time with his girls, his son, his loved ones, friends, and family. Thank you to anyone who took the time out to read his story. Cancer is that storm that can hit any family at any time and when it does, there’s no telling how much time we have left.