Hi Friends and Family,
Terri was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in October of 2014. These 7 years have been such a blessing. Terri fought so hard for all this extra time with her family and friends. In that time, she has made an impact on everyone she meets. Terri truly lived a life of kindness, going out of her way to always light up the lives of others. The amount of love that she spread in her baking alone is indescribable. She never let her own battle get in the way of comforting other’s troubles.
Terri had a way of making us all strive to become better people ourselves. We can only hope that the way she inspired us will lead us to help others. We have to pick up the slack without her here to take care of everybody!
This GoFundMe is our way of giving back to those who have supported us throughout the journey, and to uphold the kindness that Terri started. The list of “thank you’s” we would like to send out is endless. Thank you to friends, family, nurses, doctors, volunteers, and God.
We would like to make a few donations in her memory and we welcome your contributions. All contributions to this fund will be made to her four favorite causes.
1) The Pro Health Care Cancer Center
- Terri spent countless hours here receiving treatment from the most compassionate staff. We like to call our team of nurses and doctors our friends because that is how they treated us.
2) Angel’s Grace Hospice
- There couldn’t be a better place to make your last memories. The nurses, CNA’s, and volunteers took extra time to get to know our family, make sure we were comfortable, and make Terri feel at home. It is a beautiful place full of beautiful people.
3) HAWS- Humane Animal Welfare Society
- Terri always had a love of all animals. Dogs specifically put the biggest smile on her face, no matter the troubles she was facing.
4) Retzer Nature Center
- Terri loved the beauty of nature. A place full of beautiful flowers, birds, dragonflies and animals is a place that reminds us of her. They are currently working on a nature trail project at Retzer to make the trails more accessible to all ages and abilities. A donation of $2,500 would also place Terri’s name on a donation board along with an image of a Green Darner Dragonfly. Very fitting.
The picture we chose to symbolize this memorial fund is very meaningful to us.
Terri loved the outdoors and taking in all the beauty it has to offer. We were fortunate as a family to be able to go hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park many times in these recent years with some wonderful friends, Tom and Kathy. They have hiked in the park for years and their favorite hike is up a mountain to a destination named Sky Pond. Sky Pond is appropriately named! The hike starts at an elevation of 9,500 feet. It is about 10 miles round trip and ends after an elevation gain of almost 2,000 feet. The hike includes beautiful scenery and a climb up the vertical face of a waterfall. Our first time hiking to Sky Pond was shortly before Terri was diagnosed. All of us first timers felt a great sense of accomplishment after completing this grueling hike! One of Terri’s goals after surgery, chemo and radiation was to be able to make this hike again.
The picture above is from July 27th, 2017.
After 3 years and countless rounds of radiation, Terri was still able to achieve her goal. The strength and perseverance it took to complete this hike again is awe inspiring, and it is how we choose to remember her. The hike took a little longer but the memory of her excitement at reaching the top still brings us to tears.