Help Markus's wife begin to heal from his passing

On September 24th, my husband Markus Baylor, the love of my life, passed away unexpectedly as a result of severe pancreatitis and multiple organ failure—just a month and a half shy of our dating anniversary. We had no clear warning that things would get so bad so quickly. Tuesday, September 20th, after complaining of pain in his abdomen, I took him to a doctor at Kaiser Permanente, who believed it was Markus’ pancreas and told us he would get faster care at the emergency room at St. Joseph's Medical Center. A doctor at St. Joseph's diagnosed Markus with pancreatitis. They said they could help him through the pain and observe him. Markus was then admitted overnight for observation, but his condition began to worsen as he stopped being able to urinate, and his pain level reached 9 on a scale of 1–10. His medical team decided to move him to the ICU. There, the doctor recommended a central venous catheter and a pulmonary artery catheter. Even more concerning, Markus's labs showed kidney failure, lung failure, and heart weakness. This led to Markus being intubated and put on dialysis. Next, a surgeon opened Markus's abdomen in order to release the pressure from his organ inflammation. He took 600cc of fluid from his abdomen. This seemed to help but only for a short time. Despite everything the doctors tried, Markus’ heart was too weak to continue through treatment. Markus was so full of life; he would not have wanted to spend his life on life support. On Saturday, September 24th, at 1 p.m., his sisters Katrina and Kim, his brothers, Michael and Marvin, his mother Barabara, and I made the decision to take him off of life support. I said good-bye to my best friend and held his hand until the very end. May his soul rest in peace.

Markus and I met in the summer of 2014 when he was a server at The Capital Grille in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. He’d been asked to interview me when I applied to be a server. The interview started and he immediately said, "You're hired!" From there, we developed a beautiful friendship. We spent our lunch breaks and all of our free time together. He began teaching me how to play tennis and enjoyed many dinners together.

That Halloween he invited me to his house for a party. I arrived all dressed up as Chun-Li from Street Fighter and knocked on his door. His roommate Joe, who I hadn’t met yet, answered the door. I asked, "Is Markus home?" to which Joe replied, "You have the wrong house." I was so embarrassed. "Oops, I'm sorry," I said and walked away. Joe closed the door. Markus then opened the door a few seconds later and said, "We're just joking with you." Relieved, I came in and met his other roommate Don, his Sister Katrina, and her boyfriend Ryan. We all walked to Canton and celebrated halloween at El Buffalo.

As our friendship continued, we grew closer and closer, which ultimately led to our first kiss. I pretended I didn't remember the moment and teased him about it for a week. On November 14th, I finally confessed that I remembered our kiss and told Markus I was interested in a more intimate relationship. After four years of dating, I actually asked him to marry me! He said yes!

We loved playing tennis together, eating out, and going to concerts. He even tried to teach me to ski. I’m heartbroken that I’ll have to work on that without him. Mostly, we just loved spending time together watching Netflix and hanging out at home with our dog, Lucy, and our cat, Dulce.

Markus was loved by all. Those close to him would describe him as the chillest, kindest, most happy-go-lucky person on this Earth—the kind of man who'd give the shirt off his back to someone in need. I know that’s a cliche, but it’s true. I've witnessed it time and time again.

We always talked about and planned for our future, but we never imagined losing one another this early in our story. We lived in the moment, in love. We never really planned financially for a tragedy like this. Who does? You always think there will be time. We thought we had more time — more time to spend with our loved ones, more time to plan retirement, more time to grow and prosper…together.

I am now left alone with responsibilities that I thought we would face together. If you decide to donate, these funds will be used to pay off legal fees, medical fees, and to help me keep the home we bought together and hoped to grow our family in. The funds will also be used to help me continue to afford transportation, as paying for Markus’ final expenses and settling his accounts will put a huge financial strain on my now single-person household.

Please only give if it will not prevent you from taking care of your own needs. Markus was not the type of person to ask for help; we were similar in that way — both hard workers, taking pride in the fact that we built the life we shared independent of outside assistance. But I feel I must ask for help at this moment. I need the resources and time to figure out how I will move on without Markus by my side.

I will miss Markus forever, and I will never stop loving him. I hope everyone who reads this gets to experience the kind of once-in-a-lifetime love that we shared. It’s what everyone deserves. It makes life worth living.

Thank you all in advance for your kindness and prayers.