Support Teretha's Journey to Stability and Healing

Rays for Teretha: Help Her Rebuild with Dignity, Hope, and Love

Hi friends—both known and new,

I want to introduce you to someone truly special: Teretha.

Her strength will blow you away. Diagnosed with gallbladder cancer and given less than a year to live, she’s now approaching year three. Her will to survive is nothing short of a miracle. But behind her brave smile is a woman who’s been through more than any one person should ever have to face.

After nearly 30 years of marriage, Teretha was left to fight cancer on her own. The support systems we hope will catch us in hard times? They’ve failed her. She was denied disability, and the promises of help from social services never came through.

Now, she’s without a stable home or a car. She moves from couch to couch, extended-stay to extended-stay, doing everything she can just to get by—often missing critical appointments or opportunities to earn income because she simply can’t get there. On top of everything, the toll of chemo has wrecked her teeth, making eating painful and stealing her confidence.

This is where we can step in.

I’m starting this fundraiser—Rays for Teretha—because she deserves a break. She deserves a safe place to rest, reliable transportation, dental care, and the basic dignity we all need to heal and move forward.

If you can give, thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you can share this, you’re helping more than you know. Every little bit adds up to hope. And hope is something Teretha has never given up on, even when life gave her every reason to.

Let’s surround her with the love and light she has so freely given to others. Let’s be her rays.

With deep gratitude,

Jodi Gustafson-Barker