My name is Christopher Yang, I go by Chris. If you all have seen the news and social media, I recently lost my beloved wife, Melinda Thao, and our unborn child in a tragic event. This story has quickly spread through the media, fast. But first, I want to share with you all about our story. 
 
We've been together since high school in 2013. We later decided to get married in 2018, we wanted to make sure we had our goals straight, starting with getting stable jobs, and finishing school. Melinda completed college with a Bachelor Degree in Dental Hygiene in 2022. From here we decided to expand our family and purchased our home. Our journey of getting pregnant was not an easy path. We had been trying for 3 years, our first year was no luck, but during our second year in 2023 we finally got pregnant by surprise. It was just out of the blue, right before we decided to go bowling, she asked me if she should take a pregnancy test to check, I told her to go for it. She was so shocked being pregnant, her first reaction was to call her sisters to make sure it was real, and we were all crying in tears of joy for finally conceiving a baby. But throughout this pregnancy, she was bleeding a bit more excessively than normal. One night, when she was about 6 weeks along, we went in for an emergency ultrasound. They couldn't find a heartbeat at 6 weeks, therefore, they asked us to come back the following week for another check up. At the follow up appointment, we found out that the baby was not developing. We cried in pain, the doctor offered us options for the miscarriage. Melinda couldn't bear the pain of waiting for her body to naturally miscarry the baby, so she decided to have surgical intervention. We tried again in the next few months with no luck, so we decided to get help on getting pregnant. We went through many more months of tests, and she received prescription medications. After two months, we conceived our "rainbow" baby towards the end of April. We took many pregnancy tests to make sure it was positive, and it really did show positive results that she was pregnant. We went to our first ultrasound at Mercy Health Care Center on 6/18/24 and found out our baby was 9 weeks and 2 days. We decided to get additional testing done to make sure the baby did not have any health risks, and also to find out the baby's gender. We finally received our baby's gender results on 7/13/24 and Melinda was so excited, she waited until I went on lunch break so we can look at the results together. To our surprise, it was a GIRL! We were honestly happy regardless of the gender, we were more happy that the baby was healthy. Our baby's due date was estimated to be January 19th, 2025, the same day as my wife, Melinda's birthday. We also decided on our baby girl's name. Leona Yeeb Laim Yang. Melinda worked so hard to uplift our lives to be filled with joy, love, and security. She worked hard for us to buy a home, conceive a child, and have careers. This is just the tip of the iceberg of our story and it pains me to, now, explain why I am on this page to request for everyone's help. 
 
The incident occurred on Sunday, August 18th around 9:30pm. The impaired driver t-boned our SUV hitting the passenger side of the car, where unfortunately my wife, Melinda, was sitting. We both got transferred to the hospital and that is when I found out my wife and baby did not make it. Prior to everything, I remembered what we did, ate, and purchased. It pains me to be reminded that we bought baby clothes that morning, and now I don't have Melinda or Leona. 
 
I just wanted to share our story directly from me. I am open to anyone and everyone helping me, my family, and especially Melinda and our baby girl, Leona, during this difficult time. 
 
My family and I plan to use the funds to say our final goodbyes to Melinda and Leona with a funeral service, burial lands, tombstones, and everything else needed to send two beautiful souls to a better place. 
 
I place myself in a vulnerable situation to everyone to also help me with the injuries I sustained, on-going recovery (physically, emotionally, and mentally), and future court proceedings. Everything is happening too fast, but I am trying to think ahead to get justice and closure for Melinda and Leona in the court. 
 
If you find it in your heart and financial means to help, I thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. I pray that everyone stays safe, love your loved ones dearly, and continue to cherish every moment in your life. 
 
*Update 8/22/24 

I have no words of gratitude that can express the amount of outpouring love, and comfort coming from everyone from all ways, with it being a small to big donation, or just a simple share. I appreciate all of you guys so much in this time of toughness. I have read all of the notes and msgs you guys have sent me, and you all are so amazing. I will bring more updates and news as time begins to move forward, I will let you all know what steps we are taking next. Again, thank you all so much, I appreciate everyone and everything you guys have done to help me, and my little family.

Anonymous

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Kate Kamanga

Pather Thao

Chancey Xiong

John Yang

Chue Shee Vang

Aubrey Wolff

Joseph A Cullin

Nancy Lee

PangKou Yang

peng vang

Yer Yang

D Michel Esquivel

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