Hi,

My name is Kaia Ehrmantraut, and unfortunately this isn't the first GoFundMe I have hosted for the Abou Zahr family, whom we now endearingly call "Team Abou Zahr." I've had a front seat to the sentiments and tragedies endured by this family, and want you to help me, help them.

The cliff notes of this story are: Abdallah and Shauna met in 2019, engaged in 2020, and planned to marry in 2021 (they ended up getting married twice, one elopement (thanks, cancer), one full wedding). Three months before the wedding he (an oncologist) found a mass in 31 year old Shauna’s breast that resulted in a breast cancer diagnosis. She credits him with saving her life by finding the mass. As she was finishing her chemo, radiation, and surgery, Abdallah, was diagnosed with a mixoid liposarcoma (some newlywed period, huh?). Shauna was a caregiver for him as he recovered, and they lived a (short) cancer survivorship fairytale that included IVF to secure a future family. While she was pregnant with their daughter in July of 2023, Abdallah was diagnosed with a terminal recurrence and given 6 months to live. He has miraculously fought for milestone after milestone with his family including his daughter's birth, birthdays, anniversaries, and most recently the birth of his son in October, 2025. However, on Christmas day, 2025, things took a turn for the worst, and he was moved to Hospice care on 1/14/26 due to the cancer taking over his brain. He was asking for chemo until the very end because he said he was "never ready to leave his family." He took his final breaths in the early AM on 1/23/26 with Shauna by his side.

Shauna update 1/23/26: Moving your 42 year old husband that dedicated his life to saving people from cancer to hospice while you are still on maternity leave is some sort of Lifetime plot that is unfortunately our reality. Part of what made Abdallah fight for so long is the guilt he carried about how his diagnosis and ultimate death was going to impact his children and me. We've been living in anticipatory grief, but now we debut into grief for the death of our hero. Abdallah was our home, our sounding board, our calm, our logic, our emotional safe place, and our fiscal security. When he found out the cancer was growing (again) he made a video of his “wishes” that will be attached to our post. Of course, our real wish is that cancer wouldn't have taken him, but with that not the reality we accepted that our miracle is in him making it 2 years beyond his prognosis of 6 months. Although asking for help has never been in either of our repertoires (we prefer to be the helpers), Abdallah made it clear he wanted me to relay this wish list to potentially ease some of the economic burden left with his passing so I can focus on grieving and caring for our precious children (2 years old and 3 months old)."

As the video Abdallah made says, they were movingly supported in 2023 when he had his recurrence to the point that all of their IVF bills were able to be paid. The hope with this fundraiser is to aid in final costs for Abdallah, support Shauna economically while she on leave the new few months, and provide a buffer to aid in costs including childcare, mortgage, and daily living that Abdallah's income previously fully covered as their primary earner. Abdallah was Shauna's home, but they built a home together, and it is our hope to support her in staying there as long as she would like while she navigates life without her husband. Abdallah proposed to Shauna in their home, it is where they found she had cancer, where he shaved her head during chemo, where they found out they were expecting following intensive IVF efforts, where their babies came home, and where cancer slowly stole Abdallah from the family. Lastly, as you may know Abdallah deeply valued education for his children, and one of his biggest regrets was not fully securing what would be needed to know their care and education would be supported in the way he wanted. Anything not needed immediately to cover costs will be put in a fund for his children's education.

If you feel inclined to follow Team Abou Zahr, you can get to know the love bird of Team Abou Zahr through her Instagram (@shaunza_marie) and via their CaringBridge (Abdallah Abou Zahr) they have had since his recurrence in July, 2023.

If you would like to give to the Abou Zahrs, but prefer not to utilize this platform, they have a benefit account at Gate City Bank under "Abou Zahr Family Benefit." Shauna also utilizes venmo and has username Shauna-Erickson-2. Last four of her phone are 9312 if prompted.