Hospice care & financial help for Michelle Johnson

This is hard. Thinking about the people you love dying is hard. Asking for help is hard. And watching someone young and vibrant valiantly fight an illness only to have the disease win is often almost unbearable. But yet, here we are. And here I write on behalf of my dear friends Michelle and Travis Johnson, asking for help as her battle with cancer is coming to an end.

On October 27, 2023 our dear Michele was given 2 weeks to live and moved to in home hospice. She first began fighting breast cancer 6 years ago. She kicked its ass, but it then spread to her brain. She has been a warrior, fighting hard every step of the way, while still smiling, cracking jokes, and shining her light to those of us who are lucky enough to know and love her.

Her journey has not been easy, and as doctors advised that treatment be stopped, friends, family, and her loving husband Travis prepared for the worst to come quickly. But Michelle did what she always has done... she kept fighting. Now, over 2 and a half months after being told she would survive 2 weeks at best, she is still with us.

Travis has been by her side 24/7 since she was moved to hospice. He cares for her morning, noon, and night, administering medications, taking care of her personal care, cooking, cleaning, and tending to every need she has moment to moment. He has been unable to work for months as he cannot leave her side.

But Michelle's health is declining and her time with us is quite limited. The ultimate outcome will not be what anyone wished for, but my hope is that with this fundraiser, we can take some additional stress off of Travis as he spends what time is left with her. As wonderful of a caregiver as he has been, her care is quickly becoming more than he can manage alone, making it necessary to get more assistance which is of course an added expense. There will be funeral costs as well, and we want Travis to be able to just focus on Michelle and not have to worry about the immediate future.

If you've read this far, you either know and love Michelle and Travis or you've connected to her story in some way. These kinds of requests are immensely difficult to write. You struggle to find exactly the right words in the hopes that you can convince someone to open their heart and to give, choosing and discarding those words over and over. How do you express on a page how important, how amazing or how loved a person is? How do you convince someone to sacrifice something, whether it's the time it takes to donate or giving up the fancy latte to do it, to help out another human being? I really hope that something I've said here, or more likely something she's done for you, has moved you to the decision to help.

Thank you, much love, and tons of gratitude.