$5,560 raised
·45 donations
The Hungate’s House
Donation protected
Karlyn here. I wish this was a more hopeful recollection of the beautiful life my parents lived. Right now all I can do is explain where we’re at, and how we ended up in this situation.
Mom wasn’t even one year out of retirement when we found the cancer. Ironically an aggressive form liver cancer and liver failure from a women who NEVER drank. Seemed off, until we soon learned the cancer was very likely caused by a medication called Valsartan. This medication was quickly pulled off the market… seemingly without notice.
As the best RN, team lead, case manager, and patient advocate this town has ever seen, she spent over 40 years caring for others. Tragically her community didn’t come out for her in the same way. She was misdiagnosed several times in the hands of overcrowded offices, had no follow up for heavy medical interventions, and was unheard when it came to her own knowledge and wishes.
We only knew about her cancer for a year, as it was already stage 4 when found. Within that year we watched her deteriorated quickly. She suffered various complications and injuries caused by her weakened condition. When my parents worked together they were a powerful force. The love I witnessed in those last few months between my mother and father was absolutely inspiring. I feel so blessed to have been a part of those final conversations. Following a fall that broke her femur, and after surgery to repair it, she decided she’d had enough. On a peaceful and beautifully rare frozen afternoon December 28th, 2021, Korene Lynn Hungate passed under the wonderful care of her fellow nurses and staff Whatcom Hospice House. — side note: to the people who work in and around hospice you have a really hard job. I am so grateful for your care —
For about a week through this bizarre snowstorm Dad would come pick me up with his big old 4WD to see her in Hospice (with the dogs, obviously). We'd listen to music, talking about nothing for hours. By day two she wasn’t talking, but we could feel the life she had left. It was so wild. She was a fighter. Like all else she approached this challenge with such strength and poise.
Dad was missing her something fierce, but he was good at hiding it from me, his only daughter, understandably. In our attempt to heal and move forward, together he and I planned to travel. Then, one month after moms passing my dad, Lloyd Albert Hungate, would suddenly die. Just hours before his death on February 3rd, we had been joking, laughing. I learned about his death from the ORGAN DONATION services the following day, chomping at my heels to take his corneas. When I finally got ahold of the doctor, she told me his heart “just stopped”, most likely pulmonary embolism. In their attempts to revive him, the medical staff really wanted me know how unexpected it was and how hard they tried. It happened all too quickly.
I moved back to our family home that day. I’m trying to pick up right where they left off caring for my brother, the dogs, their bills, our family home etc. I really wanted to be able to get through this on my own, to move forward gracefully in the way mom and dad could have done. For a lot of reasons, some stupid complicated legal ones, I cannot sell the house right now. Any assets mom and dad left behind is still locked up in something called a “special needs trust” they were building for kc. AND legally that money cannot go toward the trustee’s living situation, so here we are.
They did not plan to die so soon. They did not plan to leave me, their elder law ignorant 28 year old daughter to deal with all this. Nobody was ready for this. With all the stress and chaos I’ve had to step away from my job in the figure skating world... again... But I finally have enough saved up for the lawyer. I’m lucky to have backup plans for work, and pans to get back into school.
The mission I’m failing right now is to get the family home out of foreclosure, and pay off their medical/funeral bills.
Sorry that was so long.
This isn’t an obituary ❤️
Please give if you can.
But by no means feel pressured.
Mom wasn’t even one year out of retirement when we found the cancer. Ironically an aggressive form liver cancer and liver failure from a women who NEVER drank. Seemed off, until we soon learned the cancer was very likely caused by a medication called Valsartan. This medication was quickly pulled off the market… seemingly without notice.
As the best RN, team lead, case manager, and patient advocate this town has ever seen, she spent over 40 years caring for others. Tragically her community didn’t come out for her in the same way. She was misdiagnosed several times in the hands of overcrowded offices, had no follow up for heavy medical interventions, and was unheard when it came to her own knowledge and wishes.
We only knew about her cancer for a year, as it was already stage 4 when found. Within that year we watched her deteriorated quickly. She suffered various complications and injuries caused by her weakened condition. When my parents worked together they were a powerful force. The love I witnessed in those last few months between my mother and father was absolutely inspiring. I feel so blessed to have been a part of those final conversations. Following a fall that broke her femur, and after surgery to repair it, she decided she’d had enough. On a peaceful and beautifully rare frozen afternoon December 28th, 2021, Korene Lynn Hungate passed under the wonderful care of her fellow nurses and staff Whatcom Hospice House. — side note: to the people who work in and around hospice you have a really hard job. I am so grateful for your care —
For about a week through this bizarre snowstorm Dad would come pick me up with his big old 4WD to see her in Hospice (with the dogs, obviously). We'd listen to music, talking about nothing for hours. By day two she wasn’t talking, but we could feel the life she had left. It was so wild. She was a fighter. Like all else she approached this challenge with such strength and poise.
Dad was missing her something fierce, but he was good at hiding it from me, his only daughter, understandably. In our attempt to heal and move forward, together he and I planned to travel. Then, one month after moms passing my dad, Lloyd Albert Hungate, would suddenly die. Just hours before his death on February 3rd, we had been joking, laughing. I learned about his death from the ORGAN DONATION services the following day, chomping at my heels to take his corneas. When I finally got ahold of the doctor, she told me his heart “just stopped”, most likely pulmonary embolism. In their attempts to revive him, the medical staff really wanted me know how unexpected it was and how hard they tried. It happened all too quickly.
I moved back to our family home that day. I’m trying to pick up right where they left off caring for my brother, the dogs, their bills, our family home etc. I really wanted to be able to get through this on my own, to move forward gracefully in the way mom and dad could have done. For a lot of reasons, some stupid complicated legal ones, I cannot sell the house right now. Any assets mom and dad left behind is still locked up in something called a “special needs trust” they were building for kc. AND legally that money cannot go toward the trustee’s living situation, so here we are.
They did not plan to die so soon. They did not plan to leave me, their elder law ignorant 28 year old daughter to deal with all this. Nobody was ready for this. With all the stress and chaos I’ve had to step away from my job in the figure skating world... again... But I finally have enough saved up for the lawyer. I’m lucky to have backup plans for work, and pans to get back into school.
The mission I’m failing right now is to get the family home out of foreclosure, and pay off their medical/funeral bills.
Sorry that was so long.
This isn’t an obituary ❤️
Please give if you can.
But by no means feel pressured.
Donations
Organizer
Karlyn Hungate
Organizer
Ferndale, WA