Support Heather’s Brain Tumor Recovery

Do you ever wonder how much one person can take? That’s how I feel about a very special person that I’ve known since she was a kid. My name is Merrilee and Heather (aka Shea) grew up a few houses down from us when my kids were 2, 3 and 5 years old. Over the years, she spent a lot of time at our house and was in the same grade as my oldest daughter, Molly. She would show up in the mornings to walk to school with my kids. There were a lot of mornings she would join us for breakfast. Summers were spent playing on the trampoline in our backyard and lots of hot dog and marshmallow roasts on our backyard fire pit. Childhood memories like these are always the best.

Fast forward to her adult years and Heather moved to Texas and was blessed with two children, Mirage and Max who are the loves of her life.

A little over 7 years ago, Heather started experiencing headaches in the Fall of 2017 and was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. Due to where it was located, it started affecting her vision, hearing and balance. In the Spring of 2019, she had surgery to have it removed and then life got really interesting. She had to relearn how to walk which took several months and A LOT of hard work but she did it through lots of pain and perseverance.

The last few years have not been easy as there have been relapses along the way including many seizures and other health issues.

Last summer, Heather could tell something was happening again. The seizures were getting worse and when she went back in for a CT scan and MRI, she was told the tumor had returned and was in the same location as before.

Now, being a single Mom things have become even more challenging. Due to not being able to work full time during this past year with her job at Southwest Airlines because of health issues, she has had to surrender her car as she hasn’t been able to keep up with the payments. Heather ended up going in for surgery AGAIN a few weeks ago to have this new tumor removed and she’s back to square one again. She is unable to walk at this point and hasn’t been able to have a lot of physical therapy yet due to all her setbacks since surgery. She has had to go back to the ER twice now. She is currently in the hospital again with very low blood pressure and liver issues. I found out today from a friend of Heather’s that she has received word that an eviction notice will be served by her apartment manager on March 26th if she is unable to pay March’s rent. She will also need to pay April’s rent on April 1st.

Like I said in the beginning, I don’t know how much one person can handle.

The few times Heather has asked for a little help financially, she has ALWAYS paid us back. But this time, I’m the one asking for help on HER behalf. The fact that she’s in the hospital, cannot walk and may be homeless by the end of this month is TOO much for one person to handle. IF you’ve stuck with me through this long story and would like to help out as well, it would be so MUCH appreciated. She's hoping to be able to return to her Customer Service job at Southwest Airlines by May but only time will tell.

One thing I can say about this amazing person is that she is NO slacker. She’s got a lot of pride and tenacity and will fight hard to get her health back because this girl doesn’t give up and has so much sass and spunk. She did it once and SHE Will do it again!! ❤️