The original fundraiser story is below, but because some time has passed, and situations have changed, I figured it'd be best to give out more current information. To sum up the original story, my mom has not worked for a few years due to anemia then once recovered, she became my grandmother's caretaker 24/7. My grandmother had social security and survivor benefits coming in, plus we had my income and some from my sister who is on SSI. My grandmother passed away with no will, no 401k, no retirement fund, etc, and everything is in her name. I am now supporting myself, my mom, and my sister because my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer right before my grandmother passed away (November).

We made it through December with only a few rough spots financially, but all the bills were paid for the month. My mom's cancer is still not staged because she cannot stick it out for a MRI, even on Ativan, but as of today (Jan 3), she is still scheduled to start radiation and chemo on Monday (6th).

The bills are coming in now. I was able to switch the electric to my name and my first bill is only $83.76... but this is for only 7 days... with every light in the house turned off at nighttime. Supply is almost $40 and delivery is $31... This is new for me, I assume the supply and delivery go up as usage goes up, right? The gas bill is still in my grandmother's name and it's budget billing, so we're ok there. Really, the only worrisome thing right now is my upcoming car insurance. $1700 for 6 months. I had a few accidents years ago, then a lapse in insurance, but man the insurance is killing me.

So, right now each paycheck is gone almost immediately. We're getting some help with food from my uncle, which lessens some stress. The problem is, eventually we will be forced to leave the house because we absolutely cannot pay the mortgage, or any mortgage in NJ. This gofundme is helping us have money for an FHA down payment and cover the cost of cheap mattresses for the 3 of us plus some really basic furniture, and just making the trip to Illinois.

I was pre-approved for a mortgage in Illinois, and we're looking at houses under $75k. I will most likely be able to transfer through my company, but if not, vet techs are thankfully in demand in most places.

We just really need to get somewhere stable, safe, and much less stressful. Please donate if you can, if not, then PLEASE share anywhere and everywhere.

Thank you so much.

My name is Alanna Kerwood. My family is in dire need of help. We have been going through a prolonged period of bad luck and heartache. This may be a long read, but I think the whole story helps people understand how we got to this point. If it is too long, just skip to the paragraph with *****. I work full-time and overtime whenever I can, but to sum it up, I lost my dog and my Mom Mom both at the end of November, and my mom has been diagnosed with lung cancer. We all lived together, me, my sister, my mom, and my Grandmom until she passed. There is no will, so we’re going to be homeless possibly in January… or at least without utilities. We need some security, especially with my mom’s diagnosis and my sister has special needs. I am scared, anxious, and in a massive panic… I hope after you read our story you find it in your heart to help my family.

Here is our story:

My mom was in the hospital at the beginning of 2022. For months before that she was getting weaker and weaker, and her body swelled all the way from her toes to her cheeks. When it began to affect her breathing, she finally went to the hospital, in January 2022. She spent 6 days there and the only two things they found were that she was severely anemic with very low iron and needed fluid removed from her lung. After two months of iron infusions, many other tests to make sure she wasn’t bleeding from anywhere, and more months of seeing all kinds of doctors to figure out the swelling, she finally began to bounce back.

Then a month or two afterwards, my grandmother fell on the step as she arrived home from work one day, and couldn’t get up or move her left leg. She ended up in the hospital and we found out she had stage 3 colon cancer which metastasized to her left lung, and most likely suffered a stroke as well. Every artery was non-functioning aside from one, which was 75% closed.

She spent a long time in the hospital after having a large section of her colon removed plus many complications afterwards. At this point she still, thankfully, had work insurance. After the hospital, she went to a rehab to work on being mobile again… but she was so weak, she did not make much progress there and she was sent home after 2-3 months. During that time, my mom was going to see her every other day, and I went when I had time off from work.

Once home, she was doing okay, and we had visiting therapists come to the house plus an APN. My mom did all the caretaking. We had to buy so many things for my grandmother such was high protein shakes, and non-dairy food and a ramp, we ended up putting most of the ramp cost plus rental costs on my grandmother’s credit card (she told us to)… but everything was okay… until the work insurance ran out, and she ended up in the hospital with a UTI and fluid in her lungs.

My grandmother never signed up for Medicare part B, she only had Part A. My mom had to navigate everything on the Medicare website to figure out how to apply, and she did… twice. The first time she misread the application and did not include a letter from her employer stating the end date of the work insurance. She corrected it the very next day after getting that letter. This was in November 2023.

So, after that hospital stay, my grandmom went to another rehab for 3 months, from October until December. We offered to bring Thanksgiving to her, but she just wanted dessert… so my mom made her favorite coconut cream pie, and we spent a few hours enjoying the holiday with her. She was doing very well in that rehab… she was able to walk with a walker, go to the bathroom, and sit and do crosswords. Every time we visited her, she was in very good spirits!

The day before her discharge, my mom contacted Social Security to ask about the status of the application. They told her that they received it, but they have 90 days to approve or deny it and calling will not speed up the process. She also asked if everything was okay with the application, and the woman would not respond. Mom waited 90 days, not counting weekends to be sure, then finally called Social Security again… and this is when everything really went downhill.

Social Security claimed they mailed a letter asking for more information… we never received the letter, and she told them that. She was watching the mail through Informed Delivery, and we brought the mail in every day. Getting my grandmother on Medicare was very important because she wanted to go on chemo. They resent the letter as my mom requested, but it had a date of January on it and the appeal window had closed.

My mom rushed to get all the information they wanted, which was proof of health coverage all the way back to when my grandmother turned 65. This was a problem because the company she worked for was bought by a corporation one year after and there was no contact information for the year she was 65. My mom sent all the information in, plus a letter explaining the original Medicare mail never came in January, and a letter from my grandmother’s previous HR rep stating that they had no access to that one year to provide proof.

She waited a month and began calling again. At this point, my grandmother continued to go in and out of the hospital and rehabs. We were paying out of pocket for doctor visits and supplies (hospital bed rental, wheelchair, still paying the ramp rental, and buying personal care supplies… plus clothing for my grandmother who had lost over 100lbs. My uncle helped immensely on multiple occasions, but my mom hated to ask for help, especially monetary, but for awhile we were doing okay…. Except for my mom. She was losing weight and was taking naps whenever she could, plus her back was always hurting her. She blamed the stress and having to physically move my grandmother to change her and bathe her.

We never heard back from Social Security. My mom and grandmom decided to just wait it out for open enrollment in January…. But sadly, it’s too late.

There was another hospital stay because my grandmom stopped peeing. My mom made her go and we found out she had acute kidney failure and would need dialysis. She wasn’t steady on her feet after this long hospital stay, so she went to a rehab that would transport her on a stretcher to dialysis.

While my grandmother was in the rehab, my mom got very sick. Her doctor thought it was pneumonia and treated her. She got a little better, but then got worse. Her doctor gave her a stronger antibiotic and sent her for a chest x-ray. The results came back as pneumonia and her right lung was filled with fluid. Her doctor wanted to see her back in a week for another x-ray, but within a few days, she called an ambulance because she got worse yet again.

This is when we found out she has a very large tumor in her right lung… cancer (my mom). She spent a few days in the hospital, but opted to leave before the biopsy because she felt guilty for not visiting my grandmother in the rehab (even though I was going up to visit). So, she had the biopsy and multiple specialist and imaging appointments the following week.

When she did go see my grandmom, she told the nurse that her (my grandmother's) breathing seemed really bad, and they needed to keep an eye on her. The rehab called my mom that night and said she (grandmom) had pneumonia, and they were going to send her to the hospital for treatment. We planned on bringing her home after this hospital stay.

This time in the hospital they put a drain in so we could suction her lung every other day to keep her out of the hospital. They also removed her dialysis port since her kidney numbers were looking very good.

They were ready to discharge her, but my mom wouldn’t be able to get her into the house and her bed on her own and I was working. At this point my grandmother could no longer stand, even for a minute. She decided to have her go to the rehab for two days until Saturday, when I had a half day. We informed the rehab we were picking her up on that day. When we arrived to visit on Friday, they said they could not discharge her without a care plan meeting, so my mom scheduled one for the following Tuesday and planned on bringing her home then or the next day. Monday evening, my mom got a call from the rehab stating my grandmother refused to go to dialysis. My mom’s reply: Good, because she doesn’t even have a port in for it anymore! (this is important later)

We all just wanted her home. I was worried about my mom having to take care of her, but she said she would do what she has to do because that is her mom. We went out and bought everything that my grandmother would need… food, personal hygiene stuff, toiletries and such. Money was already very tight, with credit cards maxxed out because of renting the ramp and medical equipment, plus the summer electric bill was through the roof and we were $1500 behind (it’s not that we were using tons of electricity, but something was going on with Atlantic City Electric… it was on the news and everything), and since we wholeheartedly believed my grandmother would hold out until January and start getting treatment and we’d have her for at least another year, my mom was trying to make sure to pay down the big credit card so we had it for emergencies. My grandmother had everything she needed to be well taken care of, and many times we ate ramen for dinner to make sure we didn’t spend much.

But that care plan meeting never happened. Me and my mom visited on Saturday and my grandmom seemed to be okay. She requested watermelon and a soft pretzel and ate both. I went up by myself on Sunday because my mom was tired. When I visited her, again she seemed okay, but a little agitated. On Monday, my mom got a call from the rehab that my grandmother was in respiratory distress, and they called an ambulance. My mom waited in the ER (they wouldn’t let her go back) for two hours, then I left work and joined her. When we got in to see her, she was intubated and didn’t respond to us at all… until we were leaving and said we loved her… she seemed to try to open her eyes. This really scared us.

When we spoke to the ER doctors, my mom asked them… if the rehab had been draining her lung every other day as stated in her discharge notes, would all of this have happened. They responded that most likely it would not have happened… but the x-ray shows her lung was completely filled.

Either me or my mom, sometimes both of us, visited my grandmother almost every day. The doctors said that the tube needs to be removed within 10 days as it could cause another infection, and they would be trying to wean her off each day. My grandmother also had sepsis and a UTI along with the breathing tube… so she was very weak and failed every wean test. Eventually, we were told that the tube had to come out and they were not expecting her to live for long after the removal. We hated making this decision, but we were also hopeful that if we were there, she might be calm and regulate her breathing…. All we wanted was to take her home with us!

So, we scheduled the tube removal for Saturday, November 23 to ensure my uncle could come up to the hospital…. Just in case.

Meanwhile, back at home, our dog Toby stopped eating. On Friday the 22nd I took him to my work to have the vet look at him and do some bloodwork. Nothing extreme came back on the bloodwork, so he was given some fluids, and I brought him home with an appetite stimulant. He seemed a little better Friday night but didn’t want to go outside. We tried one last time before we all went to bed and figured he would just pee on the floor if he needed to go, and we’d deal with it the next day.

Then Saturday came. My mom woke up early and checked on Toby and he was sleeping normally. When I came down around 10 am, I looked at him and he was twitching uncontrollably. As a vet tech, I knew we needed to euthanize him, so we went to my work and did. We were heartbroken, he was such a good boy, and my grandmother loved him. We like to think that he knew my Mom Mom wasn’t going to make it and wanted to meet her in heaven.

Once we got home, still sobbing about Toby, we sat for a bit before we needed to go to the hospital for my grandmother. We were so hopeful that with me, my mom, and my uncle there with her, somehow, she would be able to breathe deeply once the tube was removed. Our ultimate goal was to bring her home on hospice.

We were given three choices. 1) They could do a tracheostomy and put a feeding tube into her stomach and send her to a nursing home. 2) They can remove the tube and not sedate her. 3) They can remove the tube and give her some sedation so she would remain calm. Either way, the doctor expected her to die anywhere from minutes to a day.

My mom refused option 1 immediately. My grandmother was NOT going back to a rehab/nursing home. We already knew the lack of care and empathy from those places. As a family we chose option 3. I won’t go into the particulars of our last hours with her, but we stayed for 6 hours with the intention of returning early Sunday morning. The nurses would call my mom if they felt my grandmother was near the end and we would make it to the hospital in time since we are only about 5 minutes away. My mom stayed up until 3am and called the nurses’ station. They said she was stable at that time, so she went to bed.

We got the call at around 6:40am that she had passed. She left no will and had no IRA or retirement fund. No one could afford to have a viewing and as of today, my uncle still hasn’t found a place to have a memorial luncheon… he paid for the cremation.

*****The reason I wrote out the long version of our story is to explain how we ended up in the situation we are in now. I left a lot out, or I feel like I did, but what I wrote should help explain things. We were doing okay because my grandmom had two checks coming in, which covered the cost of the mortgage and utilities, while I paid for some of the food.

My mom cannot work because her cancer will require aggressive treatment, my sister is special needs and on SSI (my mom will also apply for SSI as soon as her staging is done… which is stage 3 or 4), and I absolutely do not make enough money to stay in NJ. We don’t know how long we have until everything is taken (house, contents, car, etc.) … all the bills are paid for December, but we are now struggling to buy groceries. We cannot pay the mortgage and utilities for January.

I spoke with one mortgage place that said I can be approved for a house in another state with lower taxes, but we have no money for a down payment or even enough money to move. I have been paying my grandmother’s car payment and using her car for work, but it’s in her name, so I could lose that too. I know I can call the finance company and ask for a transfer, but that adds to my debt-to-income ratio and lowers my credit score with the hard check on my credit… which could make me ineligible to get a mortgage. We are not looking to rent because rent is a lot more than the mortgage payments in other states, plus I have four cats… and I cannot lose them too!

We’re looking in Illinois as we have a family friend there who we are close to. There are plenty of houses in our price range, until we put the down payment to FHA levels. We need to keep the mortgage cost as low as possible, which we could do with a proper down payment. Our price range is under $75,000… so we certainly are not looking anything big. I cannot save any money right now because I’m trying to pay down my credit cards and I also have to buy groceries and anything my mom might need before she is able to get SSI.

We really need to move asap before we are homeless. I make too much money to qualify for any kind of state assistance, and I have four cats. I can’t lose anything else. My mom will be starting cancer treatment soon and moving before she is too weak to make the drive is very important.

Please… anything will help. We are a very proud family who HATES asking for help, but with everything hitting us all at once unexpectedly, especially my mom’s cancer diagnosis, we are desperate to get out of this house and have housing security. Even $5 would help us try to reach our goal… and PLEASE, PLEASE share this anywhere you can!