On the evening of August 29, 2026, my dad, Edwin Lewis “Louie” Pierson, passed away.

When I originally created this GoFundMe, my biggest goal was to get my dad out of West Virginia and closer to me and my family in Florida for whatever time he had left.

We did that.

On August 13, I flew to West Virginia, got my dad on a plane, and brought him to Florida. At the time, we truly believed we would have more time together.

We only had a little over two weeks.

As heartbreaking as that is, I will never regret everything it took to get him here.

Callan was able to visit his Baba with a Stick, make him smile, talk and laugh with him, and simply love him without caring about the hospital bed, the nursing home, or how sick he had become. Those moments are now some of the most precious memories I have.

His final days moved much faster than any of us expected.

Beginning Monday, I was with my dad every day. By Thursday, he had experienced a significant decline. His longtime friend John Bass came to see him that day, and by Friday we made the decision to move him to an inpatient hospice facility so he could receive a higher level of comfort care.

John and I stayed with him there, and yesterday Kurt was able to be with me for most of the day because two of my best friends, Shawna and Melissa, drove over from Orlando to take care of Callan and give Kurt the chance to be by my side.

Yesterday evening, we stepped out briefly to get something to eat around 7:00 p.m. At 8:39 p.m., we received the call that my dad had passed away.

There is, of course, a part of me that wishes I had been sitting beside him in that exact moment. But when that call came, I was sitting surrounded by people who love me. After spending so much of the last several months trying to care for my dad, advocate for him, move him, comfort him, and make sure he was safe, I was being cared for too.

I don’t think I realized how much I needed that until that moment.

And while I wish I could have had more time with my dad, I am deeply grateful that I was able to be with him every day during his final week, and that when the moment finally came, I was not alone.

We had no idea when we brought him to Florida just how little time we would have.

But we got him here.

He got to see his grandson. He got to be surrounded by people who loved him. And I got the chance to be his daughter in person during the final chapter of his life instead of trying to manage everything from hundreds of miles away.

My dad lived the kind of life that is difficult to summarize.

For decades, Louie devoted himself to wildlife rehabilitation and rescue. He spent approximately 25 years running Amber Lake Wildlife & Rehabilitation Center in Englewood, Florida, and his life included manatees, dolphins, whales, sea turtles, countless other animals, unbelievable adventures, and stories that somehow became even better every time he told them.

He dedicated an enormous part of his life to helping animals that could not help themselves.

Now our focus has shifted from caring for him at the end of his life to handling everything that comes after.

I also want to be transparent about why this GoFundMe continues to matter.

My dad died with essentially no financial resources. He had no savings, no meaningful money in a bank account, and no life insurance policy to help cover what comes next. His Medicaid income went directly toward his nursing home care. For years, he lived well below the poverty line, and I regularly helped him with necessities like food and heat.

There is no estate fund waiting to cover these expenses.

The money we have raised here is the money available to help settle the costs we have incurred while caring for him, moving him to Florida, and now handling everything that must be done after his death.

This is not an ask because it would simply be nice to have extra help. It is a unique situation in which there truly is no other financial resource to fall back on.

The funds raised here will continue to help with the significant expenses associated with my dad’s final months and affairs, including medical and nursing facility expenses, hospice-related and transportation costs, legal and estate expenses, cremation and memorial expenses, travel, expenses associated with his property and affairs in West Virginia, and the many unexpected costs that come with closing out someone’s life.

His passing does not make those expenses disappear, and there are still many pieces we are working through.

I also hope to preserve as much of my dad’s extraordinary story as possible.

He left behind decades of photographs, newspaper articles, television appearances, wildlife rescue stories, and memories that deserve to be saved. Once the immediate responsibilities are handled, I would love to continue digitizing and preserving those pieces of his life so Callan—and anyone else who loved Louie and the work he did—can know those stories for years to come.

Memorial plans are still being organized. We expect to hold something in Englewood, Florida, in the coming months, where so much of my dad’s life and wildlife work took place.

In lieu of flowers, if you would like to do something in Louie’s memory, contributing here would mean more to our family right now.

My dad spent his life making sure injured wildlife got a second chance.

We couldn’t give him more time.

But we did get him home.

And I will forever be grateful that we did.

Here is the official obituary: https://everloved.com/life-of/edwin-pierson/

With heartfelt gratitude,

Riley (Pierson) Lawrence