Robbie and Lori Leonard

Hi, my name is Christine Larrivee and I am hoping to help my sister get back on her feet. Lori has been married to the love of her life, Robert Leonard, for 35 years. They have been 2 peas in a pod and shared many laughs and some hard times as well. Ten years ago he was diagnosed with colon cancer. After undergoing chemo, radiation and surgery to have part of his colon removed and get an ileostomy put in, he was cancer free. The treatments made him weak, and he was no longer able to run his landscaping/snowplowing business in Connecticut, so it was decided that they could move into Rob's elderly parents' house in North Carolina. Lori found a job at Bed Bath & Beyond and Rob worked as a postal clerk at Cannon pharmacy while doing what he could to help his parents as well. Rob had another health issue in 2019, he had a hypertensive emergency, and spent more than a week in the hospital. This episode caused a hardening of a section of his heart, and he continued to decline after that. Doctors put him on a ton of high blood pressure, cholesterol and heart medication. Then one day in 2020, Lori came home from work to find him on the floor in the hallway where he had been for three hours because he was too weak to get up. He spent another week in the hospital but doctors could not determine the cause. Three weeks later it happened again and a third time in September, each time with a hospital stay. Then in October of 2020, he had a mild heart attack, another hospital stay. I'm sure you could imagine, bills were piling up, even though insurance covered a lot of it there was also loss of income. Rob's widowed mother now became his caretaker instead of vice versa. Rob's health improved somewhat over the next couple years, but in the spring of 2022 he developed a bowel blockage and had an incarcerated stomach. Another trip to the hospital to have his stomach pumped until the blockage was cleared. Finally another blockage happened recently and Lori had to call an ambulance. Rob had a heart attack while at the hospital, causing widespread organ failure and death.

In lieu of flowers for a memorial for Rob, please consider donating to help Lori in this difficult time.