Saying Goodbye to Gerardo R. Campos Sr.

My name is Cristina Marie Campos and I am Gerardo Campos only surviving daughter. I have taken care of my father for the last 15 years 24/7. My father suffered from many different illnesses. It all started in 2000 with a heart attack and went on from there. Everything my father has gone through up until his last breath was seven heart attacks, nine strokes he lived with kidney failure, heart failure, diabetes he had an amputated leg. He had a genetic marker of leukemia and severe depression. My father went to Dialysis 3 to 4 days a week eight hour with an 8 hour chair time and was extremely exhausted. He would complain of having pain all over and sometimes he would rather sleep all day than get up and deal with any of it. The most recent diagnosis my father received was having vascular dementia April 2023. At first there wasn’t many changes he would just ask repetitive questions, but at the end he started to forget a lot of little things like if he had just ate or taken his pills. My father was a very strong man and fought to the very end. I will say that much.

On April 18, we decided to place my father on comfort care following his words from his advance directive. It was the hardest thing any of us had to do up until April 20 when he took his last breath. All day long on April 20 he laughed and made jokes with my mom by his side, they have been married for 43 years and on May 23. They would’ve celebrated 44 years. They lived very happy life even with the ups and downs. They had four children my brother Lalo, my sister Odilia, but On January 1985, my sister unfortunately passed away from SIDS and my parents thought it would be the end of their marriage but nope my father and my mother fought through and then had my brother Julio and me. As a parent myself now I couldn’t imagine the pain that they felt at the time or that they feel now losing a child can never be easy And that’s why I believe there’s no word for it.

My father loved us very much, and even though at times he didn’t believe we loved him we did even with all the headaches he gave us. We really did. This whole situation has been extremely difficult on my family and now we hate to ask are for your help so that we can lay my father to rest. Any and all donations are welcome even if you just share this post we greatly appreciate it.

Please always remember life is short and time goes by fast, so take the pictures, make the visits happen. Give a lot of hugs and say a lot of I love you because when they are gone you won’t get any of those back. Everything is just a memory at the end.