She Wants a Big Party. A Celebration of Life.
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She Wants One Last Party, A Celebration of a Beautiful Life.
Becky Arnold, Our mom, is one of the kindest most caring people you’ll ever meet. Now, I know everyone says that about their mom. But, Becky has raised 7 kids, SEVEN of us! She now has 18.5 grandchildren (.5 will be here in about 6 weeks he is still cooking).
Here is the short-ish story; Becky met Tim after his first wife and bio-mother of 2 of the 7 kids passed away. They decided to merge two families just 13 months later. Oh boy! Did they have some upset kids! “You’re getting married!?!” Those first couple of years were bumpy. Becky walked into a family with a 16 year old girl that just lost her mom a year before, two adult-sons trying to live on their own, and 4 more kids at home that ranged from 6 to 16 still needing their mom too. You know what? She did it. She was there. She was there EVERY time we needed her! She has continued to be there for the last almost 25 year years, 9045 days as of today September 26th.
In April of 2019 we found out that our mom had a brain tumor. “BRAIN TUMOR” is just the scariest two words that you can hear together. Especially about your moms brain. The brain that has ran two businesses, the brain that was the mayor or her town for years, the brain that helped us figure out what we were gonna do growing up, the brain that made life long friends at her church, the brain we all depended on. Our "rock and anchor" had a crack in it, and it was terrifying.
Becky has Glioblastoma. The worst of all the brain cancers. Having just a 6% survival rate for folks over 55. Most people die within just a few months of being diagnosed. Not our mom! Two surgeries, chemo, radiation and 17 months later she is still here! Then she got the worst news anyone can hear come out of a doctor’s mouth “the cancer is back and there isn’t anything more we can do”…
Becky was put on hospice just two days later. Hospice is another scary word, because she isn’t completely bed ridden yet. She still takes the dog out, checks on her fish pond, hugs her grandbabies. But when there is no more treatment and all they can do is keep you comfortable until the inevitable happens, hospice.
She is slowing down quickly, she is tired often, and her speech and dexterity are slipping. But she's still there. The spark in her eyes, the witty comments, the ability to still hang out with us and chat, our mom isn’t gone yet.
6 months the doctors said. Six months. We asked her what she wanted to do while she still can and she said she wants to have a big party, a celebration of life while she is still able to participate. She said “I want to hear what people have to say about me while I’m still here and I want a Sponge Bob piñata! I want to have it by the lake, food and drinks and everyone can hang out and just have a good time. Let’s do it on 10/10/20!”
As you know that isn’t much time. No matter what we do it seems we are always fighting time.
During all this, a huge portion of our family was evacuated for the Fires, people off work due to COVID, and obviously us "kids" want to do this for her and not have Dad or Grandparents have to worry about any of it.
But money is always an issue. It’s also an issue that people have shame over or feel uncomfortable talking about.
Well, we are putting that aside for this one. We want to have an incredible celebration for her. We would also like to get a big beach house for mom, dad, kids and grandkids to hunker down privately for a weekend in the next month or so too.
This all takes money. I know this is long. But how do you tell the world how good a person has been to you in something like this? Becky is a mom, a wife, a grandmother, a sister, an aunt, a friend, and a beautiful person. She deserves the best of everything and has her kids thats all we want to give her.
Okay, I’m reeling it in. If you want to help out and throw some money at helping this lady get her party on one last time and spend some quiet time with family before she closes this chapter and moves on to her next. It would mean the world to us.
Thank you for reading this, thank you for any help you can offer.
Now...all of you go hug your mom!
Amamda Arnold
Becky Arnold, Our mom, is one of the kindest most caring people you’ll ever meet. Now, I know everyone says that about their mom. But, Becky has raised 7 kids, SEVEN of us! She now has 18.5 grandchildren (.5 will be here in about 6 weeks he is still cooking).
Here is the short-ish story; Becky met Tim after his first wife and bio-mother of 2 of the 7 kids passed away. They decided to merge two families just 13 months later. Oh boy! Did they have some upset kids! “You’re getting married!?!” Those first couple of years were bumpy. Becky walked into a family with a 16 year old girl that just lost her mom a year before, two adult-sons trying to live on their own, and 4 more kids at home that ranged from 6 to 16 still needing their mom too. You know what? She did it. She was there. She was there EVERY time we needed her! She has continued to be there for the last almost 25 year years, 9045 days as of today September 26th.
In April of 2019 we found out that our mom had a brain tumor. “BRAIN TUMOR” is just the scariest two words that you can hear together. Especially about your moms brain. The brain that has ran two businesses, the brain that was the mayor or her town for years, the brain that helped us figure out what we were gonna do growing up, the brain that made life long friends at her church, the brain we all depended on. Our "rock and anchor" had a crack in it, and it was terrifying.
Becky has Glioblastoma. The worst of all the brain cancers. Having just a 6% survival rate for folks over 55. Most people die within just a few months of being diagnosed. Not our mom! Two surgeries, chemo, radiation and 17 months later she is still here! Then she got the worst news anyone can hear come out of a doctor’s mouth “the cancer is back and there isn’t anything more we can do”…
Becky was put on hospice just two days later. Hospice is another scary word, because she isn’t completely bed ridden yet. She still takes the dog out, checks on her fish pond, hugs her grandbabies. But when there is no more treatment and all they can do is keep you comfortable until the inevitable happens, hospice.
She is slowing down quickly, she is tired often, and her speech and dexterity are slipping. But she's still there. The spark in her eyes, the witty comments, the ability to still hang out with us and chat, our mom isn’t gone yet.
6 months the doctors said. Six months. We asked her what she wanted to do while she still can and she said she wants to have a big party, a celebration of life while she is still able to participate. She said “I want to hear what people have to say about me while I’m still here and I want a Sponge Bob piñata! I want to have it by the lake, food and drinks and everyone can hang out and just have a good time. Let’s do it on 10/10/20!”
As you know that isn’t much time. No matter what we do it seems we are always fighting time.
During all this, a huge portion of our family was evacuated for the Fires, people off work due to COVID, and obviously us "kids" want to do this for her and not have Dad or Grandparents have to worry about any of it.
But money is always an issue. It’s also an issue that people have shame over or feel uncomfortable talking about.
Well, we are putting that aside for this one. We want to have an incredible celebration for her. We would also like to get a big beach house for mom, dad, kids and grandkids to hunker down privately for a weekend in the next month or so too.
This all takes money. I know this is long. But how do you tell the world how good a person has been to you in something like this? Becky is a mom, a wife, a grandmother, a sister, an aunt, a friend, and a beautiful person. She deserves the best of everything and has her kids thats all we want to give her.
Okay, I’m reeling it in. If you want to help out and throw some money at helping this lady get her party on one last time and spend some quiet time with family before she closes this chapter and moves on to her next. It would mean the world to us.
Thank you for reading this, thank you for any help you can offer.
Now...all of you go hug your mom!
Amamda Arnold
Organizer
Amanda Arnold
Organizer
Portland, OR
