My Dad's Headstone

We found out the week of Easter,  April 23rd,  that my father had pancreatic cancer.  The oncologist told our family that he had 2 weeks to 2 months to live.  He was injured on his job and not worked since 2011 and was turned down for life insurance.  My father and mother are Godly loving people.   His church group of guys that he met with every week were able to build his coffin.  We were able to get 2 plots in the catholic cemetary thanks to our many  family that were able to come together to purchase these plots. 

Its hard to put into words what kind of man Roland was.  He had a lot of demons that he overcame during his short 50 years of life.  He and my mother were married for 32 years.  Many have said that they have never witnessed the amount of love they had for one another.  He was a wonderful father figure to my daughter.  It was so hard for him to tell her about his cancer because he didn't want her to hurt,  but he found a way to tell her.  He said that when he realized he was going to die that he didn't feel scared.  He felt at peace that he was going home to be with God.  He said he was sad because the family was left here to mourn his loss.  You could see in his eyes that he meant that. 

A month before he died,  he was almost frantic trying to get things ready for our family.  Like a mother nesting for her newborn child.  He had the car repaired to where it was in good driving condition,   and made sure he had his friends help with things around the house.  He showed my daughter how to cut the grass.  He showed me were he kept things like a/c filters.  He truly cared.

Although he was only given 2 weeks to 2 months to live he had aggressive chemo to try and buy some extra time in this life to spend with his family.  He lived until September 20th.  He was surrounded by friends of the church and his family. 

My father was laid to rest on September 23,  2014.  We had no idea how expensive a proper headstone costs.  Since he had no life insurance this cost is out of our budget.  We attempted to find a cheaper stone online,  but the cemetarty doesn't allow the 3rd party stones.  My mother is retired and is still in shock.  She has just enough money coming in monthly to pay her rent and live on. 

I've never done this before so I'm not sure if it will work,  but I am willing to give it a try to help my mother not worry and give my father a proper headstone.  Thank you for reading this and please help us if you can. 







One of our family pictures 2 months before he died.  He loved the water so I had the photographer (that donated her services) on the bay.