Support Frank and Sue Montoya

It has taken me days to gain the strength and find the words to describe the hardships my family has faced over the last thirty years. I never imagined that I would be writing these words. Most of my life I’ve watched my parents face crisis after crisis and they’ve always managed to get through everything thrown at them. Even with the struggles they face, they have always tried to help others and support the community when they can. It is with an extremely heavy heart that I am writing these words and asking for help, something that my family has never done well. My father, Frank Montoya, has been battling cancer for over twenty years after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in the late 90’s. He beat the thyroid cancer and was diagnosed and treated for five different types of cancer after that. He has been a living miracle for many years and it seemed as though he could beat anything. Sadly, the cancer from his kidney has metastasized to his lungs and now possibly his brain. He has been in hospice care at home and recently his health started rapidly declining. My family is very private about our struggles and many people close to us don’t know everything that my parents have overcome in their lives. My parents started a construction company in 1980 and managed to grow an extremely successful business during my childhood. They both worked extremely hard to build a comfortable life for their family. My parents world was turned upside down when my brother, Jeremy, was in a serious car accident in 1994 at 16 years old and had a traumatic brain injury where he lost part of his brain. He was in the hospital and rehab for months and had to learn how to walk, talk, eat, pretty much everything all over again. This took a huge financial and emotional toll on my parents as it took years to get him to a place where he could do things on his own. He needed constant care and my parents had to focus most of their time on him, which meant their business suffered. Then, in 1997, our house, barn, grandmother’s apartment, and my brothers house were flooded in the Fort Collins flood. My parents had to spend thousands of dollars to repair the damage from three feet of water inside the buildings and the damages to the outside fencing and property damage. Insurance didn’t cover flooding and that became another huge financial burden for them to fix everything they had already remodeled once and built after buying the property and remodeling the house and doing the same for my brother’s home. During this time, my dad injured his back and couldn’t work so he had to go on disability but my brother was able to step up and help my mom some with the company. Over time, it became apparent that my brothers mental health was declining and his brain injury was worsening. Playing sports as a kid and living an active lifestyle led to a few too many hits to the head and his brain has stopped functioning the way it should. He is now to the point of needing help with most things and is unable to leave the house and unable to help financially. This left my mother with no choice but to run the business herself and help raise my brothers three children while caring for my disabled brother and father. On top of all of that, my health has been an issue since I had my first hip surgery at 9 and two back surgeries by 18. My parents spent a lot of time away from work and paid for medical care for my issues. I was in a car accident in 2015 that fractured my spine and left me in a position of having to quit my full time job and go through a series a surgeries and eventually had to move in with my parents also. It has all been too much for one family to manage but we have made it work over the years. Our world came crashing down three years ago when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and needed a double mastectomy. She made it through the surgery extremely well and went back to work to support her family and grow the business. Then, she had to undergo a double knee replacement after suffering with horrible pain for years. It was a difficult recovery but she is the strongest person I know and was back to work within a month. Not long after that, she was cutting a piece of wood with a circular saw and got her hand caught in the blade and almost lost her fingers. She has had two surgeries on her hand since then, but is still unable to move her fingers normally and has numbness and pain constantly. She will need at least one more surgery to repair the nerves and tendons in her fingers. As you can imagine, this has made everything a lot more difficult for her, especially being in her 70’s. Over time, the financial burden has continued to grow and my parents have had to use any savings they had and consolidate their lives in order to stay afloat. Earlier this year, we learned about my dads cancer spreading and we were hopeful that radiation therapy would help but he was unable to complete the treatments. It has been a fairly slow decline in his health until the last few months and in an effort to make him more comfortable, he was placed into hospice care at home. In the last week he has had a rapid decline in his health and is currently at a facility to help manage his care and allow him to have visitors to say their goodbyes. The invincible man has met his match and we are all heartbroken watching this process unfold. My mom has been our rock and held our family together for so long, I would like her to be able to grieve for her husband of almost 50 years and not worry about taking care of everything for once. Please say a prayer for my family, and if you are able to make a donation, we will forever be grateful. The money will go to my parents to help them pay the growing number of bills and expenses plus paying for end of life costs for my father, when the time comes. If you would like to visit my father, or would like to know more information, please reach out to me and I will help any way I can. I will post updates as they happen, and I thank you for reading our story and any positive thoughts sent our way. I love my family and want to see a brighter future with happier times ahead, and some peace for my parents. Thank you so much for taking the time to read our story ❤️