Help the Gomez/Berry Family

Joana Campos Berry and her children need our support!

In 2008, Joana was the single mother of 3 year old twin boys, one of whom was severely disabled, and a two-year-old little girl when she became the teacher’s aid in Gaylon Berry’s special education class.  She was just 21 years old.

The partnership they formed in that classroom would grow into a deep and abiding love over the years and they later married on August 2, 2014.

Since the moment they met, Gaylon was a rock for Joana, loving her and loving her children as if they were his own.

Joana eventually became a nurse and Gaylon began helping working families with special needs children  navigate care and services for their children.  Again, they were in a partnership, Gaylon providing guidance to families and Joana visiting these special children after her nursing shifts ended.

In late 2018, Joana and Gaylon gave birth to a little baby boy named Christian.  Gaylon was a doting and dedicated father to Christian...and to Joana’s children who had become like his own.  He constantly pushed Daniel and Delilah to work hard in school and work harder at being good people.  And, he helped Joana care for Daniel’s special needs twin brother, Damian, like any father would care for a son.

On Sunday, Gaylon developed a fever and was in a great deal of pain.  He was admitted into the hospital and shortly after began to experience organ failure and suddenly and tragically passed away while Joana sat by his side as the doctors desperately tried to revive him.

Gaylon was the greatest of men and everyone who knew him can attest to that, most especially Joana, for whom he was a true north.  He was a man of great faith and he shared that faith with his children each evening.

Gaylon just turned 40 and he and Joana were about to celebrate their 5th anniversary on a vacation surrounded by their children.   Joana is now faced with the reality of life as a single mother again, with a new baby and three children who have lost a father.

Please help us help Joana and her family during this difficult time.  All of this is so sudden and unexpected and no one was prepared emotionally or financially to deal with this devastating loss. A little bit from all of us can make a huge impact on their ability to find space and peace to recover and heal.

Thank you for any little bit you can give to help this amazing family and honor the legacy of faith, charity and love that Gaylon left behind.

For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
Romans 14:8