Support Genelle Smith's Battle Against Cancer

Hello, my name is Michael Smith and I am the son of this wonderful lady here, Genelle Smith. My mom is currently 56 with a birthday coming up in July 17th where she will be turning 57. My mom has always been a sweet, friendly, kind-hearted soul that is adored by all. Several friends of mine look at her as a second mother because she treated everybody I brought around like they were her own. From taking them to practice, feeding them, and putting a roof over their heads if needed. My mom worked for 35 years in a factory and never had hiccups with attendance, productivity, or lack of skill. My mom had very minimal health issues growing up, to my knowledge, and always seemed pretty healthy. She was diagnosed with diabetes in 2012 but was able to monitor it fairly well with regular medicine and monitoring foods. Unfortunately, in September of 2022, my mom was diagnosed with Metastatic Carcinoma. At first, it was a hard pill to swallow for us, but my mom is a very strong lady. She has always put her faith over fear first and trusted that this was all a part of her process. My mom started her chemo/radiation process where we endured 6 months of chemo with 33 radiation treatments to help reduce the mass so it could be removed. Everything seemed to be on a close monitor and relatively moving well. We were able to remove the mass along with 5 lymph nodes that were no longer healthy. All seemed to be going well, and we were doing our regular doctor visits to monitor her remission. Fast forward to that next Thanksgiving of 2023, my mom began to have trouble pronouncing words, which led to some mental confusion. My mom decided to drive to the hospital one day instead of work to see what was going on because she knew something wasn’t right. I’ll never forget that phone call at work when she called me crying, asking if I could come be with her because the doctor had run a few tests to find out her cancer had spread and she had 12 tumors in her brain. We were then diagnosed with stage 4 cancer due to the spreading and quickly knew we had another journey to battle. My mom received 10 more radiation treatments that were pretty intense and were directly over the brain. Thankfully, no surgery was required, and we were able to eliminate 11 of the 12 masses. We entered another remission stage where, with several medicines and doctor visits, we could hopefully maintain and continue to do what we needed to do to improve the quality of life. My mom went out on long-term disability from her job in March of 2024 just due to everything going on. It’s hard for a company to wait. Business is business at the end of the day, unfortunately, and due to her health complications, it just made more sense to retire from ammunition and firearm handling. 2024 seemed to be a year that looked more positive than most because it felt like we were finally seeing some light after 2 years of dealing with this mess. We made it almost all of 2024 improving our daily life and taking necessary steps to monitor the cancer and diabetes. In November of 2024, my mom went in for a regular visit to see her progress when we were told she had 5 new tumors that appeared on her brain. Terrible news to get because we were doing so well, but once again, my mom is a warrior and took on the challenge. We started radiation and chemotherapy again in March, which was going well but had a sudden turn of events. My mom was walking through the house one morning and slipped (high blood sugar and weakness from radiation). She had to call 911 with my dad and me at work. She was transported to the hospital where she found out she had broken her left hip and shoulder. We spent two weeks in the hospital after surgery before being transported to a rehabilitation center where we spent two weeks trying to improve her mobility and strength. Unfortunately, insurance only allowed our stay for 2 weeks, and we were sent home with in-home health care 3 days a week. My mom was not ready to go home, but sometimes insurance will only do so much. We were able to get her home where she needed assistance with almost everything. Thankfully, I work a job where I was able to take some time off work to be there as she would be for me in any case. We were only home for about a week when we had another incident on May 8th, 2025. My mom slipped out of the bed rolling over and rebroke her hip, which required another ambulance and visit to the hospital where we had hip surgery again. My mom wasn’t happy about the situation, and neither were we, but what can we do? My mom will be spending this Mother’s Day in the hospital as we wait to figure out the recovery process again to get over this bump in the road. With all of that being said, we have had to push back the CARTI visits that are for the 5 tumors that she currently has. Praying for a speedy recovery on the hip and the ability to get strong enough to tackle the next task.

My mom has endured so much in the past 3 1/2 years, and I’m just so thankful to have such a strong woman as my mom. Never would you think all of this could happen to someone, but she has tried to remain as positive as possible about her situation and trusting in the Lord to guide her through the healing process. My family has never been the kind to ask for a handout or anything of that nature, but more as the ones to give to others.

Sometimes your back gets put against the wall, though, and you have to lean on others for strength and guidance. This process has been far from easy for my dad and me. It’s our job to step up and help mom, though, when and where she needs it, and we have no problem doing that. It’s in our blood to take care of others and give a helping hand where needed. From ambulance, doctors, medicines, therapy, to putting food on the table. So if you’re reading this, please just say a prayer at the least for the strength my mom needs as she battles hip surgeries, diabetes, neuropathy, radiation, chemo, and stage IV metastatic cancer.

God gives his hardest battles to his toughest soldiers, and I believe my mom is as strong as any.

My mom believes in two things: Faith over Fear & Treat others how you would want to be treated.

Thank you for reading this and please keep our family in your prayers.