Help Us Honor a Great Dad with Dignity

Hi there.

As everyone knows, my dad, Bill Shumate, passed away on Tuesday, September 18th at 3:25 am.

He had an issue with his intestines and ultimately had to come back to the hospital for emergency surgery. Once they opened him up, they found that he had a clot in his intestines, which caused 30 cm of his intestines to die. They removed all 30 cm, and unfortunately, you can't live a life without your intestines. He was then on life support while Dakota and I had to go from Morgantown to Cabell Huntington Hospital to ultimately make a decision on what to do with our dad.

They informed us that if we kept him on life support, he would need to have a feeding tube and many more surgeries.

Everyone who knows our dad knows that he wouldn't ever want to live a life like that.

So there we were, faced with this decision to let our dad perhaps live with no intestines, needing to be fed through a tube, or to take him off life support and be as comfortable as possible.

Dakota and I made the decision to let him be comfortable. So we did this. I sat and prayed, and we talked to him until the very end.

We let him know how much we loved him and how much of a great dad he is.

THIS IS SO HARD.

Everyone, I love my dad so, so much. I miss him so much. I'm falling apart.

We were under the impression that the VA would be covering his funeral arrangements, and we found out today that's not the case and that we COULD be reimbursed, and that's not even 100%.

So I'm asking for help to please help us lay our dad to rest so our family and friends can say our proper goodbyes and grieve the proper way.

I can't even believe all this, and I'm just trying to make sure my dad gets his wishes.

Thanks in advance, and we love all of you.