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My brother wasn’t planning on dying today. I know this to be a fact. If he knew he would be dying today, he would have figured out how to leave a million dollars to the one he loved the most, his wife Becky. He was born with the Swanson blessing / curse— we will live forever and will always have the ability to make more money. Unfortunately, on Friday night June 28th, the good Lord had different plans for my brother and took him from the family that loved and depended on him. A few years ago Becky was forced to give up her job because she was diagnosed with
guillain-barré syndrome a horrible auto-immune illness that attacks the nerves. As If that wasn’t enough, in 2019 Becky was diagnosed with early-stage dementia.
The bottom line is my brother worked countless hours to try to make up for the lost income from Becky not being able to work over the past few years and they could never get ahead. Phil died and left no savings for Becky and an abundance of medical bills from Becky‘s illness. Becky is in the fight of her life with the Social Security administration trying to receive her disability benefits and unfortunately this will be a long drawn out battle. Becky has absolutely zero monthly income for the foreseeable future and I am begging our friends to help make her life just a little bit easier with a small donation to her go fund me page.
Below is a beautiful tribute to the life of Phil and Becky Swanson as written by their daughter Alysha:
From the start Phil and Becky have been inseparable. After just a few months of dating they moved in together and the rest is history!
Phil and Becky married in April 1987. They started off by renting a house accross the street from Becky's mother's house in Glendale, AZ. Low and behold Becky got pregnant a few months after they tied the knot (oops!)
Then they went on buy their own home for their growing family. Three years later Chris came along and then there were four.
Phil and Becky then decided they needed a much larger home and moved to Peoria, AZ where they lived for almost 9 years. After Phil left the Navy he started a new career with Pro Clean and quicky worked his way to being the director of operations. While Becky was an amazing and wonderful stay at home mother. As the kids got older Becky started a new career as an Activities Director at Thunderbird Retirement Home. Becky would bring Chris and Alysha there to visit with the residents frequently. They would dance, sing, do water aerobics, play jeopardy and just have the best time there. This is where they both got their love for the elderly.
Chris was active in flag football, ice hockey, basketball, roller hockey and football. Alysha was active in volleyball, softball, basketball, cross country and track and field. The family would go on wonderful adventures multiple times throughout the year. Whether is was camping in the woods or desert, going to San Diego to the zoo or beach or going to Puerto Penasco, Mexico they always had the best time together. Laughing, always laughing no matter what came their way.
Eventually they outgrew the house and moved out to North Peoria to what felt like a mansion! Chris and Alysha went on to different schools growing and making new friends. Phil started his own successful chemical sales business. While Becky started a new career as a medical scheduler for a wonderful gastroenterologist group. Chris started wrestling and quickly made the varsity team. He was a force to be reckoned with in his weight class. Alysha made the varsity track and field team and went on to place in state competitions. She then went on to become passionate about nursing and received her CNA.
During this time Becky started suffering from chronic debilitating migraines requiring multiple hospitalizations. This also made her unable to make it to work multiple days a week. She couldn't move without getting violently nauseous. The blinds would be closed, she'd have wash cloth over her face and just be unable to move. Alysha would have to give her injections to help with the migraines and suppositories for the nausea (hence the love for nursing). Becky had spinal surgery shortly after that. This was supposed to be the cure for her migraines. Sadly, it wasn't.
Just like so many others in 2007 the real estate bubble hit the family hard. They lost their home, their cars and their business. They were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They all stepped up and made it work like the true family unit they were. They rented an apartment, took multiple jobs and made ends meet, all the while slowly rebuilding their lives. This was, in a way a silver lining because it taught them that family is really the only thing that matters and that things are just that, things.
Alysha went into nursing school, while Chris followed in his dad's footsteps into the world of chemical sales.
Throughout this time Becky kept getting readmitted to the hospital for migraines and the doctor's couldn't figure out what was wrong. Her quality of life was poor, but her family kept her going.
A few years later Becky was walking into work and collapsed in the parking lot. Once she arrived in the emergency department she became paralyzed in her legs, then moving up to her abdomen. The physicians almost had to place a breathing tube because the numbness and paralysis was working it's to her lungs. She had a lumbar puncture and they diagnosed with guillain-barré syndrome. Which is a horrible illness that in which the immune system attacks the nerves. She spent two weeks in hospital getting infusions to help the paralysis and numbness. After this she was wheelchair bound and unable to take more than a few steps. Becky went off to what she called her "rehab stent". She spent almost a month learning how to walk, dress herself, and feed herself again. Because she's such a rockstar Becky was on her feet using the Walker and transitioning to the cane in no time.
Becky was unable to go back to work due to the residual effects of the nerve damage. Phil picked up the slack by changing jobs to get health insurance, since Becky was the one who had the insurance through her job.
Still they prevailed, stronger than ever as a couple.
Shortly after Becky had another string of bad luck getting diagnosed with fibromyalgia and Lupus. Still with a positive attitude throughout.
A little over a year after she got diagnosed with Lupus and fibromyalgia she had another bout of Guillain-barré syndrome. She spend another two weeks in the hospital getting infusions. Then once again she had to learn how to walk, feed herself and dress herself.
I don't know if most people could handle surviving not one, but two episodes of guillain-barré syndrome all while suffering from Lupus, fibromyalgia and chronic debilitating migraines.
It sure takes an extraordinary person; which Becky most certainly is.
As if this poor, beautiful woman hadn't been through enough the following year, in 2019 she got diagnosed with Dementia.
Phil supported her no matter what, with a love that most people spend their whole life searching for.
A month after getting diagnosed with Dementia Phil developed a case of pneumonia. He was getting intravenous antibiotics for a few days, when he suddenly got worse and had to go to the emergency department. There they learned he was in flash pulmonary edema and his lungs were filling with water. Also he was having a massive heart attack without even having chest pain. Needless to say he was a wreck. They took him to do an angiogram to check his vessels where they found four of his vessels had greater than 98% occlusion. During the procedure his heart stopped, they shocked him twice and got him back. Then his blood pressure dropped so low that it occluded the stent and his heart stopped again. This time they couldn't get him back.
He was 57, full of life, love and taken much too young.
Phil leaves behind his beautiful wife Becky 54, son Chris 28, daughter Alysha 31.
guillain-barré syndrome a horrible auto-immune illness that attacks the nerves. As If that wasn’t enough, in 2019 Becky was diagnosed with early-stage dementia.
The bottom line is my brother worked countless hours to try to make up for the lost income from Becky not being able to work over the past few years and they could never get ahead. Phil died and left no savings for Becky and an abundance of medical bills from Becky‘s illness. Becky is in the fight of her life with the Social Security administration trying to receive her disability benefits and unfortunately this will be a long drawn out battle. Becky has absolutely zero monthly income for the foreseeable future and I am begging our friends to help make her life just a little bit easier with a small donation to her go fund me page.
Below is a beautiful tribute to the life of Phil and Becky Swanson as written by their daughter Alysha:
From the start Phil and Becky have been inseparable. After just a few months of dating they moved in together and the rest is history!
Phil and Becky married in April 1987. They started off by renting a house accross the street from Becky's mother's house in Glendale, AZ. Low and behold Becky got pregnant a few months after they tied the knot (oops!)
Then they went on buy their own home for their growing family. Three years later Chris came along and then there were four.
Phil and Becky then decided they needed a much larger home and moved to Peoria, AZ where they lived for almost 9 years. After Phil left the Navy he started a new career with Pro Clean and quicky worked his way to being the director of operations. While Becky was an amazing and wonderful stay at home mother. As the kids got older Becky started a new career as an Activities Director at Thunderbird Retirement Home. Becky would bring Chris and Alysha there to visit with the residents frequently. They would dance, sing, do water aerobics, play jeopardy and just have the best time there. This is where they both got their love for the elderly.
Chris was active in flag football, ice hockey, basketball, roller hockey and football. Alysha was active in volleyball, softball, basketball, cross country and track and field. The family would go on wonderful adventures multiple times throughout the year. Whether is was camping in the woods or desert, going to San Diego to the zoo or beach or going to Puerto Penasco, Mexico they always had the best time together. Laughing, always laughing no matter what came their way.
Eventually they outgrew the house and moved out to North Peoria to what felt like a mansion! Chris and Alysha went on to different schools growing and making new friends. Phil started his own successful chemical sales business. While Becky started a new career as a medical scheduler for a wonderful gastroenterologist group. Chris started wrestling and quickly made the varsity team. He was a force to be reckoned with in his weight class. Alysha made the varsity track and field team and went on to place in state competitions. She then went on to become passionate about nursing and received her CNA.
During this time Becky started suffering from chronic debilitating migraines requiring multiple hospitalizations. This also made her unable to make it to work multiple days a week. She couldn't move without getting violently nauseous. The blinds would be closed, she'd have wash cloth over her face and just be unable to move. Alysha would have to give her injections to help with the migraines and suppositories for the nausea (hence the love for nursing). Becky had spinal surgery shortly after that. This was supposed to be the cure for her migraines. Sadly, it wasn't.
Just like so many others in 2007 the real estate bubble hit the family hard. They lost their home, their cars and their business. They were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They all stepped up and made it work like the true family unit they were. They rented an apartment, took multiple jobs and made ends meet, all the while slowly rebuilding their lives. This was, in a way a silver lining because it taught them that family is really the only thing that matters and that things are just that, things.
Alysha went into nursing school, while Chris followed in his dad's footsteps into the world of chemical sales.
Throughout this time Becky kept getting readmitted to the hospital for migraines and the doctor's couldn't figure out what was wrong. Her quality of life was poor, but her family kept her going.
A few years later Becky was walking into work and collapsed in the parking lot. Once she arrived in the emergency department she became paralyzed in her legs, then moving up to her abdomen. The physicians almost had to place a breathing tube because the numbness and paralysis was working it's to her lungs. She had a lumbar puncture and they diagnosed with guillain-barré syndrome. Which is a horrible illness that in which the immune system attacks the nerves. She spent two weeks in hospital getting infusions to help the paralysis and numbness. After this she was wheelchair bound and unable to take more than a few steps. Becky went off to what she called her "rehab stent". She spent almost a month learning how to walk, dress herself, and feed herself again. Because she's such a rockstar Becky was on her feet using the Walker and transitioning to the cane in no time.
Becky was unable to go back to work due to the residual effects of the nerve damage. Phil picked up the slack by changing jobs to get health insurance, since Becky was the one who had the insurance through her job.
Still they prevailed, stronger than ever as a couple.
Shortly after Becky had another string of bad luck getting diagnosed with fibromyalgia and Lupus. Still with a positive attitude throughout.
A little over a year after she got diagnosed with Lupus and fibromyalgia she had another bout of Guillain-barré syndrome. She spend another two weeks in the hospital getting infusions. Then once again she had to learn how to walk, feed herself and dress herself.
I don't know if most people could handle surviving not one, but two episodes of guillain-barré syndrome all while suffering from Lupus, fibromyalgia and chronic debilitating migraines.
It sure takes an extraordinary person; which Becky most certainly is.
As if this poor, beautiful woman hadn't been through enough the following year, in 2019 she got diagnosed with Dementia.
Phil supported her no matter what, with a love that most people spend their whole life searching for.
A month after getting diagnosed with Dementia Phil developed a case of pneumonia. He was getting intravenous antibiotics for a few days, when he suddenly got worse and had to go to the emergency department. There they learned he was in flash pulmonary edema and his lungs were filling with water. Also he was having a massive heart attack without even having chest pain. Needless to say he was a wreck. They took him to do an angiogram to check his vessels where they found four of his vessels had greater than 98% occlusion. During the procedure his heart stopped, they shocked him twice and got him back. Then his blood pressure dropped so low that it occluded the stent and his heart stopped again. This time they couldn't get him back.
He was 57, full of life, love and taken much too young.
Phil leaves behind his beautiful wife Becky 54, son Chris 28, daughter Alysha 31.
Organisateur
Becky Swanson
Organisateur
Springfield, MO