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The Riggsby family needs help! (ICU&funeral costs)

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The Riggsby family has had the hardest year of our combined lives, which has seemed to peak in the last few weeks.  There has been some good, but there has also been tragic loss, severe illness and more heartache than any of us thought possible.  All of this has brought us to have to rely on our community, friends, and family like never before.  There has been an outpouring of love and service offered and the repeated but difficult to answer question of  “What can we do to help?”  We are still trying to figure out the answer to that question, but currently what we have decided we can ask for is some help with the financial burden that tragedy brings. 

Our story:

At the end of last year Momma Riggsby (Angie) was diagnosed with breast cancer and in fairly short order ended up needing a mastectomy that came with complications.  She required a second surgery and hospitalization.  She has been dealing with the fallout and difficult recovery ever since.   

The beginning of June was supposed to be a new start- a joyous time with the arrival of the newest member of the Riggsby/Pickert clan.  This did not go exactly as planned and after a long and complicated labor Bastian Pickert was born via emergency C-section.  Mere hours after his arrival into the world we found out that Caitlin (his mom) tested positive for Covid and all new family members were subsequently separated.  Bastian was placed in the NICU.  Caitlin was placed in the ICU for Covid treatments.  Dustin (his dad) was sent home and not allowed back into the hospital due to also testing positive for Covid.

In Buckley, Momma Riggsby also started showing symptoms of Covid and began her quarantine.  After about a week of slowly worsening breathing she ended up needing emergent transport to Good Samaritan ER where she was then admitted for severe Covid symptoms.  While the rest of the Riggsby household stayed at the farm, Dad (Dave) started to exhibit mild symptoms as well, eventually ending up having respiratory difficulty and being admitted to the same hospital.  At this point Michael, the second of three Riggsby brothers, was willing to leave his family in Utah, make the 13+ hour drive to Buckley to start helping out with the day to day farm chores, doing everything he could to take care of family while our parents were in the hospital.

Matthew, the eldest of the Riggsby children, started showing symptoms around the same time as Dad.  He self quarantined and worked from home.  Anyone who knows Matthew knows that rarely in his life did he put himself before anybody around him, especially those that he loved.  His symptoms seemed to follow a similar track as his Dad’s from what we know, starting off relatively mild but gradually worsening.  In true Matthew fashion and not wanting to burden the rest of the family with his own difficulty while Mom and Dad were so sick he never indicated how sick he was getting.  Shortly after Dad was taken to the ER Matthew stopped responding to calls and texts from his family.  The following morning somebody was sent to check on him and on June 20th, 2021 Matthew was found dead in his home.

Heartbreak, sadness, isolation and tragedy don’t even begin to describe the past few weeks for our family.  The hits just keep coming.  One of the hardest things for us has been the physical separation, which we’re still dealing with, when what we need most is to come together to greave and heal as a family.  Mom has been in the ICU due to worsening respiratory distress, though she has recently shown improvement.  Dad has been admitted and is receiving treatments, but remains in the hospital.  Caitlin has also been re-admitted to her local hospitals twice for complications related to her C-section, and has only just recently returned home. Mariah (the youngest) has been in and out of the ER for various health issues recently.  Due to everything that has been thrown at us she had to make the difficult decision to postpone her wedding to Matt Perdue that was scheduled to be held in mid July on the Riggsby farm.   

As hard as the coming days and weeks will be for our family on an emotional and spiritual level, we also know that reality will soon hit, and the financial burden that will go along with our already difficult times will rear its ugly head.

There has been so much love, thought, prayers and service offered to our family that we can never truly express how deep and heartfelt our gratitude is.  We are humbly creating this GoFundMe to give at least a partial answer to that difficult question, "What can we do to help?"  The best way that the many, many loving people that have expressed a desire to assist right now is through this fund raiser.  Any amount that can be offered will be a huge help and go a long way towards easing the financial stress and allowing the family to grieve and slowly startthe healing process.  

We thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for the love and service already being shown in so many ways.  We are trying to move forward as best we can on the long road to healing and sincerely thank each and every one of you for any support that can be offered.

With all of our love and gratefulness,

The Riggsby Family

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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $200 
    • 3 yrs
  • Michael Gaudiello
    • $10 
    • 3 yrs
  • Skagit IAFF Local 1983 Lance Ford
    • $1,000 
    • 3 yrs
  • Killer Imp rew4slw
    • $10 
    • 3 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $5 
    • 3 yrs
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Organizer and beneficiary

Dustin Pickert
Organizer
Marysville, WA
Angie Riggsby
Beneficiary

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