Hello everyone, my sister, Amanda, and I wanted to put together this fundraiser for the best person that we know, our mother, Denise. My sister wrote a beautifuly well told summary as to why:

This year has been the most difficult time of her life, layered with one tragedy after another. Somehow, through it all, she continues to be there for her family and do her best to pick up the pieces and make the most of bad situations. There is honestly no stronger woman that I have ever met, and I want nothing more than to be able to bring her some hope and help in her time of need and be there for her the way that she has always been for me.

At the start of this year, my mom lost her own mother to a heart attack. It was so sudden and unexpected and it hit us all hard. We still miss her every single day and cherish the memories that we have of her. However, my mom did not have the proper time to grieve because she had to go to Ukiah and clean the house her parents lived in. For as long as she can remember, my grandmother had been a hoarder and the condition of the house was absolutely terrible. She spent countless hours, weeks and months taking out dumpsters full of trash, scrubbing surfaces that had been stained years ago and going through the enormous quantity of items my grandmother had collected throughout the years. It was not easy, but my mother (my hero) did it without complaining.

Too soon after my grandmother had passed, we found out that my grandfather, a tough former marine and navy veteran, had aggressive cancer that had spread to his lymph nodes. She took care of him while he was sick, handled all of his affairs while he was hospitilized, and made him as comfortable as possible when he went home for hospice care. He passed on April 19th, surrounded by his family. When he passed away, none of his affairs were in order and everything became her responsibility--his debt, mortgage, taxes, etc.

Overwhelmed and struggling to make ends meet, my mom continued to be strong for her family. She has always continued to try and help me and my brother and she found a loving home for 3 of her parent's pets that she could not keep and added her mom's favorite dog Bella to her own 2 dogs. Financially and emotionally drained, she struggled to find a way to pay her medical expenses without health insurance and find the money to repair her car when it broke down.

Now, in September, life threw another curveball at her. The home that she was living in in Middletown, Ca burnt to ashes in the Valley Fire. It destroyed her parent's ashes before she could put them to rest in a family cemetary, the memorable keepsakes she had left of her parents, the pictures and scrapbooks she had to relive memories of her life, irreplaceable paintings her great grandmother had created and left her with nothing but the clothes she was wearing and, thank God, her three dogs. She was supposed to be at home when the house burnt down, but a friend needed her help that day and without hesitation she went to help, taking along her fur babies.

I know that money can never replace what she has lost, but it can help her start to rebuild a home and make new memories.

Photos:
Yvonne Scoles(grandma), Amanda Olson(sister), Dennis Scoles(grandpa), Denise Scoles-Olson(mother), and Cheryl Burns(cousin)
Family Dinner.


The trailer survived, except for the axels being melted.

Her Computer with all the business stuff as well as personal

There is her fountain, her blue glass dishes and all her storage including mom and dad's stuff. All ash.

Her rainbow vacuum cleaner. She's have had that since Amanda was born.

what's left of the barn.
her television.
The white milkroom was my mom's room. To the left was the kitchen. In front of the room was the office and living room.

My Great-grandmothers metal plates and Grandma's china. My mom saved the container to put her mom and dad's ashes in to take up to Oregon to bury.
House again. 



Grandfather's memorial

Grandparents, my sister(middle), and my other sister Amber(left up front).