People in Waterloo and the surrounding Finger Lakes community know Darlene Cieri (Colegrove) as an educator, a mother, or just that quirky lady down the street. Darlene married her high school sweetheart, Fred Cieri, in 1988, and raised all four of their children (Shane, Caitlin, Drew, and Ricky) in the Waterloo-Geneva area. She is an alumna of Waterloo Central School District (1988), Finger Lakes Community College (2002), and Hobart and William Smith Colleges (2004 & 2005). Darlene now works as a Special Education and English teacher at Waterloo High School. At school, she serves as the advisor for Student Council and the Diversity Club. Over the years, Darlene has been a scout leader for Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts, a coach for youth soccer, an actor in community theatre with the Seneca Community Players (SCP), and a long-time member of the Presbyterian Church in Geneva.

This summer, Darlene began experiencing hepatobiliary health issues, resulting in a ten-day hospital stay. She has since been diagnosed with a serious health condition that has resulted in seeking specialized care in New York City. Darlene is receiving treatment and hopefully a surgery to remedy her health situation.

We have been so grateful for the outpouring of support and offers to help. For those who wish to donate to our parents, we are providing this GoFundMe page. We truly appreciate anything you are willing to donate to assist with medical expenses and travel costs as Darlene receives treatment. We also welcome all your continued thoughts, prayers, and good vibes for strength, positivity, healing, and comfort for our mom and our family!

UPDATE 01/05/2025:

It has been some time since we shared this post about Darlene’s health crisis. We avoided sharing too much information early on as she was concerned about the seriousness of her condition affecting her students.

Darlene has been receiving treatment for a rare form of gallbladder cancer. She went through intense radiation and chemoimmunotherapy for over 5 weeks in the fall, completing her final radiation in early November. We were hoping for surgery in December, but she experienced some complications that required additional CT scans, MRIs, and a biopsy to confirm the cancer did not spread beyond the gallbladder. Following the biopsy, she experienced septic shock and was admitted in Mount Sinai in NYC for a week before Christmas. We just returned from appointments in NYC on Friday, January 3, and Darlene’s surgery is now scheduled for Monday, January 13. This surgery is quite significant and not often performed. It is high risk, and success is not guaranteed. She will be in the hospital for 7-10 days following the surgery. We will need to reside in NYC following the surgery for at least 2-3 more weeks to be close to the medical staff in case of any complications. The recovery for this surgery is expected to take 3-6 months. If all goes well, we will bring her home to recover at home in mid-February.

We want to thank everyone for the generous donations so far. They have helped tremendously throughout the many trips to and from the city for treatment. Moving forward, housing for the next month in NYC will be quite expensive, and any donations would certainly help cover those costs.

We greatly appreciate your support, and thank you again for the love and prayers that have come our way!