Honoring a Mother’s Final Wish

I was going to talk about last night’s presidential debate but clearly you can hear and read as many takes as you want on that and don’t need me to tell you what I thought.

What I am going to write about is how for all our faults there are times we are reminded of the generosity of others and what a difference it can make.

Last Friday I received a call from someone I know who was looking for some direction in regards to a personal situation she was aware of. A young woman was dying of colon cancer and her true last wish was to take her 7-year old son to Disney World. My friend, who I will call “Shelly," said they were desperately trying to raise the money for this to happen and had struck out with a couple of resources.

She mentioned that a GoFundMe page had been set up and did I have any ideas.
I suggested that she or someone else call Bob Levy on his “Topic A” program on Sunday morning and solicit donations through that fundraising site. I would get to Bob in advance and appraise him of the situation and the expected phone call.

Sunday I was listening to Bob’s show when he received a call from “William from Fort Dix” who began talking about his wife Kellie and her final wish and realized quickly this was what I had talked to “Shelly” about. However when William mentioned that Kellie had actually died on Saturday I was stunned as was Bob who had been expecting this call but not this late development.

William, an active duty member of the military who has been deployed five times said that despite his wife’s death they were going ahead with plans to take 7-year-old Will to Florida and people were responding to Kellie’s Final Wish on GoFundMe. The goal was to raise $10,000 but when I checked this morning more than $34,000 had been pledged. 443 people had made donations in just three days, many of them anonymously.

There will be a memorial service for 34-year old Kellie Webb on Thursday at the Timothy E. Ryan Home for Funerals on St. Catherine Boulevard in Toms River. The following day William and Will leave for Disney World and I’m sure Kellie will be smiling.