This fundraiser has been created in honor of my mother, Shelly Evertz Parfitt.

Shelly was diagnosed with terminal (stage 4) pancreatic cancer in July of 2024. As her family and loved ones we remained as hopeful and as positive as possible expecting some time - but not nearly enough - to enjoy our last few years with our mother and daughter and friend.

Unfortunately as a lot of these stories play out, we weren’t given that time. Shelly received her first and only round of chemo therapy and very quickly her body struggled to handle the medicine and instead rejected this treatment and quickly her health and quality of life declined. Shelly spent the next 2 months of her life in and out of the hospital living off of ice chips, and blood transfusions. Mitch and I watched our mother struggle to live, to walk, to enjoy food or find any sort of happiness.

On September 22nd 2024, we unexpectedly received the news that she had passed away in her sleep.

We have created this fundraiser in order to give her the celebration of life she deserves. Anyone that knew Shelly knows she was a beautiful person with a beautiful soul and deserves to be remembered in this light. Myself and my brother, Mitch, humbly ask for any support we can receive in order to give Shelly a celebration honoring the love and kindness she poured out to all of her friends and loved ones.

We have been working with an amazing woman, Linda Kress at the World Trade Center Seattle who has been outstandingly helpful in budgeting a beautiful event at a venue we know our mother would have truly loved. I know a lot of people would have liked to help Shelly during her time of need while she was still with us and unfortunately that time was taken from us. Any contribution little or small won’t go unappreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read our message and acknowledge our mother as we navigate putting her soul to rest.