For those who may or may not know, five years ago my wife Adela and I dealt with the devastating loss of our eldest son, who passed away at the young age of 19. Within the next year, with a heavy heart from grieving our son’s loss, we were met with the diagnosis of my wife having Stage IV stomach cancer.
With the diagnosis came a life expectancy of one year, even with treatment. But with Adela being the perseverant person full of life that she is, she fought for herself and to be with her family, and was able to give us three more wonderful years with her. Three more years of her beautiful humor, her contagious laugh that you could hear across several rooms, and her motherly love and affection. Even with the side effects of treatment and the cancer itself, she has been such a hardworking person that she desired to attempt to live a normal everyday life and to continue contributing to our family’s financial wellbeing by working a full-time job until she no longer was physically able to a couple of months back.
Adela is my wife, the beautiful mother of our three children, a sister-in-law, an aunt that has been a second mother to my nieces and nephews, and an amazing friend to many. Our children are her greatest pride and she always supported them to live up to their full potential – not only are they kind and hardworking, but all are intelligent first generation college students, with our oldest son prior to passing being a student at Kennesaw State, our daughter Lizeth currently at Washington University, and our youngest son Miguel is also at Kennesaw State. She has lived her life as an incredibly lively, selfless, and loving person: she has loved to dance even when she’s not great at it, she has joked and has been able to put a smile on everyone’s face even in these darkest of times battling with her cancer, she has helped her loved ones when they were in need even before herself, and despite her not having any relatives here she has been such a nurturing person that she was able to find a family in my family and in the loving friends she has made along the way. Unfortunately, due to the rapid decline in her health the past couple of months and her relatives being in another country, her mother and brother were not able to see her one last time.
Adela has fought a long battle, but with such an aggressive illness and treatment, her body is exhausted from the pain and her life is waning. My wife is currently in hospice care where the only thing that can be done for her is to make her as comfortable and with as little pain as possible during her last couple of days or hours of life. As a family, we are having to come to terms with the inevitable, and we are seeking any help that anyone may provide to assist with overdue bills from the years of cancer treatment, the current hospice care, the funeral services, and other expenses. Any amount helps, and we are very thankful in advance.
