Support Leslie's Fight After Losing Patrick

Grief-Stricken and Fighting to Live

My sister, Leslie, early Sunday morning, September 29th lost her husband.

As a devoted wife and mother, Leslie was doing everything right so she could get on the kidney transplant list – eating exactly what doctors said, taking walks with her husband and son, and staying grateful to God for all her blessings. On the morning of 9/29/2024, her husband of 36 years, Patrick, died of metastatic stage 4 esophageal cancer that just crashed into us within the last few weeks.

It started with a compression back fracture. Her strong hero, who was her rock since they met in high school, suddenly could hardly get out of bed and he even had trouble swallowing. After many doctor appointments with one possible diagnosis after another, she couldn’t bear to watch Patrick suffer anymore and called an ambulance last Saturday to take him to the ER again. Eventually, they told her it was definitely cancer, and it had spread, even weakening his bones. She still had hope all week, only leaving Patrick at the hospital to get dialysis and go home to pick up specific foods to stay on her dialysis diet. Then, the worst happened.

Now she's praying hard and trying to stop that feeling of falling when you’re this shocked and devastated. Now she's worried about funeral expenses, upcoming medical expenses that Medicare didn't cover, making the house payment, paying the property taxes, affording utilities, and wondering how to buy those special diet foods. She won’t get another one of Patrick’s disability payments. She's 6 years away from Social Security, and she is unable to work. Can you help her? Thank you and God bless.