Update: Wayne passed away peacefully at 2:15am on February 7th. He was surrounded by family and love.

Our step-father, Wayne, is a proud marine veteran. He has spent years battling cancers of different forms. On top of active prostate cancer, he was diagnosed with Leukemia in April 2025 and has been declining rapidly ever since. Wayne contributed to a majority of our family’s living expenses, but he had to stop working after his AML diagnosis. He is imminently entering hospice; and our family’s main priority is making Wayne comfortable. We do not have the means necessary to do a proper burial and funeral, as is his sacred request.

Our mom, Laura, has been Wayne’s caregiver since last spring, when he started a new form of chemo to treat his Leukemia. She had to take off working entirely at the beginning of January when Wayne entered the hospital in critical condition. She has practically lived in the hospital for a month to bring the utmost support for her husband. We could not be more inspired by her selflessness in this difficult time.

The rest of our family, whether working or attending college has been making all necessary home and living expenses for the last month. Although our family is contributing all that we can, we are still short funding. We particularly struggle to buy groceries and have no disposable income past the second half of the month. We have been going to food pantries and taking all opportunities to alleviate some of the fiscal pressure from our life. Unfortunately, living and stretching paycheck to paycheck, we have not been able to set aside money to pay for Wayne’s burial and funeral expenses. Wayne has requested he be buried with his Marine headstone. Our family is trying to put every effort into making this a reality but cannot in our current financial circumstances.

Thank you so much for reading a little bit about our family and considering donating to ensure Wayne gets buried and laid to rest how he wishes to be.

If you would prefer to donate over Venmo, you can pay to Maryl-Nielsen.

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