Help a Combat Veteran Honor His Mother Sheila's Legacy

Lisa Cross is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Hi, my name is Lisa Cross. My husband is Brent Cross. We live in Oakley, California. On November 16, 2024, my husband's mother passed away, as she had terminal cancer. To be exact, it was called Angiosarcoma, which is cancer of the blood vessels. Her name was Sheila Cross, and she made it to her 95th birthday on October 14th (as you can see a clip of her family birthday party in "videos" that follow).

Sheila was very bright and had a strong mind. She had all her wits about her, up until about two and a half weeks before she passed. It was getting harder for her to get up out of bed without help, and she was very weak. She could barely walk, and when she did (walk with the help of her walker), she was extremely exhausted by the time she got to her resting place. She stopped eating pretty much everything, and it was hard for her to even take her medicine. The cancer had burst out of her skin on the right side of her chest and continued to grow up until the day she passed. She suffered through a tremendous amount of pain, and yet she stayed strong and weathered her condition like a true soldier.

My husband was named her Executor of her Estate, Will, and Living Trust. Upon her passing, we realized she had no life insurance. My husband is taking the loss of his mother extremely hard. I can tell because I know him. My husband is a Combat Veteran and Bronze Star Medal recipient from the first Gulf War. He went through a lot back then, but I've never seen him so down with such an overwhelming look of sadness, worry, and hopelessness in his eyes. It makes my heart actually ache.

We are so worried that we won't be able to do what we really need in order to get through this:

Enough money to have a nice but modest funeral for Sheila, and to have a small memorial Celebration of Life get-together afterward;

Enough to settle bills and pay off her final expenses;

In the Will and Living Trust, Sheila leaves her granddaughter, Britney Cross, the family home and one acre of land. This is the same home that Sheila lived in since 1964. Her granddaughter is 20 years old and is attending community college at this time. She wants to transfer to a University next fall to complete and obtain her Bachelor's Degree. In the Trust, it states that the home shall be given to her after she graduates and starts her career or when she turns 21. This was set up like this so that Britney would be able to pay the mortgage payment. There is a mortgage on the property, which payment is approximately $1,200.00 a month.

The Trust also stated that until Britney was able to take over the mortgage, the property would be held in a Trust, by one or both of her parents on her behalf, until such time that Britney finishes school, starts her career, and is earning money to afford paying the bills and mortgage.

Well, we just found out yesterday that someone closed Sheila's bank account prematurely before the automatic house payment was taken out for December's payment. The banker told my husband that the money that was in the account is no longer in the account Sheila had because someone closed it. Therefore, the money is in limbo somewhere. The banker told my husband to come into the bank on Monday and to bring the Death Certificate and the Family Trust so they may see what happened.