Hello, my name is Kendra, and I am the Cousin the Valerie Sparks.

During Thanksgiving Day 2025, my cousin Val was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia. After being admitted, she was told she was in active Heart, Kidney, and Lung failure. Val has had several heart surgeries since she was a young child, including valve replacements. The doctors were able to get her Kidney and Heart failure under control, but unfortunately, they were not able to help with her Lung failure. Vals's only option for survival was being ventilated, and she was not eligible for this because of her heart condition. There was a 75% chance she would die during the ventilation or when it was removed. Val made the very hard decision not to be ventilated and signed a DNR after discussing the options with her Doctor.

Val had a sack of blood pooling around her lungs, suffocating her. The doctors did everything they could to drain the blood from her lungs, and her only job was to focus on breathing. Val was in incredible pain and battled for several days before passing away in the ICU on Monday night at only 44 years old.

Val passed away surrounded by her only living family. Her mother, Lois Loberg, her Father, Donny Sparks, and her now widowed Husband, John Knickerbocker.

My Aunt Lois only had two children. Val and her brother Ben. Ben passed away 3 years ago due to heart failure, leaving my Aunt with his 4 children to raise. Due to Val's worsening medical conditions, Val had moved in with her mother a few months ago for support. My Aunt has now lost not one, but two of her children in less than 3 years. No one should ever outlive their children, let alone both. My aunt is caring for her grandchildren on a retirement budget and cannot afford funeral services to bury her daughter.

I am asking for help easing the burden on my aunt during this difficult time. If you cannot donate, thank you for reading this through. We would appreciate it if you could share our story.