Kim, we love you and we'll miss you dearly

My sister’s name is Kim Miller, and she is in the final stages of Cancer. Aside from the rest of her body, it’s done enough damage to her liver that her oncologists believe this will decide how much time she has left. Today she received news that her liver is no longer responding to treatment, and she will most likely not see Christmas. She’s fought hard over the last ten years with courage, dignity, grace, and strength; she defeated it once but was unsuccessful when it returned for a second time. Kim had a goal to experience Christmas one more time with her family (her husband, Troy, and two children, Aidan and Emily) and would have loved to see her son graduate next spring, but that is not going to be possible.

Kim’s husband Troy has been working hard to support their family as she’s been unable to work for the past three years during her cancer fight. As anyone who’s had a family member with cancer, you know that expenses add up quickly, and the financial hits never let up. It’s a steady financial drip of pain and suffering. As end-of-life approaches, in-home care becomes a necessity, which looks like it will be a genuine need within the next few weeks and can cost hundreds of dollars per week. Additionally, with today’s news, Troy will be taking the rest of the year off from work, unpaid, to help at home with Kim, as she will require more and more care as the week's progress.

Kim has touched many lives throughout her own life. Some of her most cherished experiences (aside from her family) were with the Lancaster Red Rose Figure Skating Club. She started out learning to figure skate, then later taught figure skating to children, eventually managing the club. When she wasn't teaching, she was cheering her son's ice hockey team, the Lancaster Firebirds, through more games than she could count. A large part of her life was spent at that ice rink, and she's made many life-long friends along the way. My wife and I joined Kim for breakfast at the Silver Spring Family Restaurant a couple of weeks ago and were so surprised when she saw no less than four different couples who stopped over and said hello to her and asked how she was doing. Her life ripples around her more than she realizes. Or maybe she does. She’s always gone out of her way to make the people around her feel special. She’s touched more lives than I can count, and I hope that gives her loved ones some comfort during this usually happy time of year.

This GoFundMe aims to raise as much money as possible to alleviate the financial worries her family will encounter over the next two months. Your funds will go directly towards helping to finance the in-home care she will need, any last medical procedures she needs to extend life, even for a short period, and most importantly, it will allow Troy to spend the remainder of the year at home. We hope this will be a happy time they can spend together, at least at the beginning. In the following weeks, Kim’s family will be going through the most difficult time of their life. If you can help financially to offset some of the stress and maybe even help with Christmas for the kids at the end of this, we will be forever grateful. Thank you so much for reading this, and please don’t hesitate to call on Kim. If you would like to reach out, please do it soon.