A Final Tribute to Nana’s Beautiful Life ️

Hello, everyone. First and foremost, I want to thank you all for taking the time to learn about my story. My name is Angelique Chenault. I am a 22-year-old female from Las Vegas, Nevada; however, I currently reside in Los Angeles, California. My mother, Angela McKinzie, currently resides back home in Las Vegas, where she was actively being the caretaker of my ill grandmother (her mother), Deborah Cotton, also known as Nana. For the past 8 years, my Nana was under the care of my mother due to her severe health conditions and inability to care for herself. My Nana has always struggled with her health, and unfortunately, it only worsened over the years. With new diagnostics and not enough cures, we’ve seen her transition from being able to completely walk and talk on her own to not being able to speak or walk at all, in such a short amount of time, but every day we fought. However, I did have to move away for a while back in the beginning of August this year, and I was devastated. It felt so wrong to leave my grandmother, but I knew my mother to be the strong woman she is. Unfortunately, Nana’s health severely declined within a matter of weeks, and I knew I had to take action to get back home to be able to support her and my mother. With consistent updates on her health while being away, my mother informed me that Nana wasn’t doing too well and she needed to have open-heart surgery. She suffered from hydrocephalus, heart complications, stage 3 kidney failure, and sepsis later on. On October 23rd, I drove back home to visit and support my family, as this surgery was severe and extremely difficult. She was extremely happy and ecstatic to see me and my mother before the procedure, and I’m so grateful I got to see her when I did. The next day, October 24th at 3 pm, she went into her surgery as scheduled, but the evening took an unexpected turn and all of our lives changed. Due to unknown circumstances at this time, the process of the operation resulted in her having a heart attack during the surgery, which caused her brain to completely shut down and deteriorate. She then became what the doctors call a “vegetable” in a coma. However, after 4 blood transfusions and constant resuscitations, the doctors implied that there was not much more they could do to help her anymore. They’ve failed her. At approximately 10:30 pm, my mother then decided to bring her peace and agreed to take her off of the machines, and unfortunately, my Nana took her last breaths at 10:55 pm. Surrounded by love and prayers in her last moments, her transition was extremely painful to witness.

To know Deborah is to know love. Not only was she a mother to her children, she was a mother to all. She was MOM, and as long as you knew who she was, you would never go without. With every bit of sass, it was always a priority of hers to make sure everyone in her circle felt seen, heard, and understood. She was love, and we will forever cherish and carry that memory of her in our hearts forever.

With this unexpected loss, we’re reaching out through this GoFundMe to honor her memory in the way she deserves. Any contributions, no matter how big or small, would absolutely mean the world to me and my family as we only wish to give her a proper farewell to heaven. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for any support and assistance you can offer during this difficult time. ️