Help a Grieving Family with Rent and Bills

Our family is going through much grief and stress right now and we really could use as much help as possible while we get through this.

My grandmother, Victoria Carmichael, has lived with us since 2010 when my brother was born. She moved across the US with us and has had a constant presence in our lives for 14 years. Unfortunately, she had a rapid loss of mobility around the 4th of July. She got out of the tub one day but found that she didn't have the strength in her legs to do it and needed assistance. After that, we went to see the fireworks and when we got home, her legs were weak and she fell and scraped her legs causing a lot of bleeding. Though she did initially recover somewhat and was able to walk at first, the injuries on her legs didn't heal and towards the end of the month, she became weaker and weaker until she could not even get out of bed or her chair without physical assistance. She needed to go to the hospital.

On July 31st, we took her to urgent care. They immediately noticed her lack of mobility, her high heart rate, problems breathing and a few other factors and sent her to the emergency room at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Springfield, OR. Pretty soon thereafter more complications were found and she was moved to the oncology unit. She had a bad case of liver cirrhosis and a ton of fluid built up around her left lung and stomach. They did drain this fluid a bit and did treat the injuries on her leg to the best of their abilities, but in testing the fluid they found evidence of cancer. They said that it was almost certainly ovarian cancer.

We've been visiting her and spending what time we can with her and it's been a hard time for us, especially for my mom. My grandmother hasn't been eating in the hospital, and though she has been in generally good spirits, she has talked with her doctors and chaplain and is going into hospice and nearing the end of her life very soon with us. She's going to have in-home hospice care with us until she passes, and we want to spend this time with her and have time to grieve and recover from this.

My mom, Missi Marks, is going to take time off work and use FMLA, and she plans to use Oregon PTO when she puts in her paperwork and she can start receiving it. My stepdad is still working, and I am starting work soon, but that still won't be enough to cover all expenses. We will also lose the $800 a month that she brings in from her retirement and she didn't have life insurance. This came up on all of us really sudden, and we were not able to prepare for this at all.

This does still put us in a bit of a financial crisis as we have to cover rent for next month and whatever bills come up, as well as general funeral costs for cremation and urns. We don't live around a lot of her family and friends anymore, so we don't plan on having a formal funeral service, but cremation and urns are still not cheap. This GoFundMe is set at $5,000 to accommodate all of these costs. We would really love and appreciate any monetary help we can get to help us get through this time and have space to heal and grieve.

Also, please share this GoFundMe far and wide if you can. We'll be sharing this on all our socials and in all our friend groups to get as much support as possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please email or message me, but also please be respectful of our emotional capacities.

We also have an active Meal Train too if you'd like to support that, though priority goes to the GoFundMe.