We will send an invite after you submit!
In memory of
Helen "Vette" Yvette Hillman
March 7, 1954 - February 28, 2023
Mar 7, 1954 - Feb 28, 2023
In lieu of flowers
Please consider a contribution to Travel to Her Final Resting Place.
$100.00
of $7,000 goal
Show your support:
Contribute
Background
How did we get here to this moment of asking friends and family to help bury our mother, our grandmother, our great-grandmother? A couple months ago she received the amazing news that the radiation caused her cancer to change it's makeup and it was now a large cyst. However, it would need to be removed and we prayed that all microscopic cancer was gone as well. Her eldest daughter was traveling to Nebraska for the surgery to remove the tumor, it was to be the final step in her cancer treatment. The recovery would be hard but her mom was strong, she’s a fighter. And we were ready for the work ahead.
You see, we weren’t supposed to be here. We knew there was chance she wouldn’t make it. There’s always a chance that things could go wrong but she had just beat cancer. We saw her as invincible.
In October 2022 Helen was diagnosed with an extremely rare cancer called “Spindle Cell Sarcoma”. She had a very large tumor in the soft tissue of her groin. She lived in a small town in Sidney, Iowa, and the closest cancer center to her was in Omaha, Nebraska. For the next several months she made multiple trips, back and forth, spending long days and sometimes weeks.
The first step in the treatment plan was extensive radiation for five weeks. And after many sleepless nights our prayers were answered and her cancer had died! The next step was removing the tumor. She had to have surgery to have the tumor removed. And this is where things went awry. At the end of her 10.5-hour surgery the surgeons came out and said everything went great. It was a very extensive surgery. The cancer had moved into her veins. They had to graft her femoral artery, removal stomach muscle, strip a vein, and insert mesh to prevent hernia. After several days in the ICU, and about a week in the hospital, she was transferred to a rehabilitation center to help her get back to walking.
Except she wasn’t healing. Her surgery incision wasn’t healing properly. They sent her back to the hospital, another surgery, they opened her wound back up, cleaned it out and closed her back up. After a couple days they sent her back to the rehabilitation center. A few days later she was back in the hospital, this time when they opened her back up they discovered her muscle was decomposing inside of her leg. The radiation that saved her life had killed off her thigh muscle and the surrounding veins. Her thigh was not getting the blood supply it needed to heal. So they cleaned out the dead tissue and kept her incision open. It was after this surgery that we learned that our 3 options were to remove her abdominal muscle on the other side of her stomach to create a flap for her thigh and pray that it heals, amputate her leg at the knee and use her calf muscle or amputate her leg at the hip. It was a very long 10 day stay in the hospital while her eldest daughter never left her side and watched in horror as her mother developed delirium. In her lucid moments she made it clear that she did not want to live without her leg. The decision was made to try to save the leg.
The fourth surgery they went in to create the flap by removing the left side abdominal muscle leaving the top portion connecting to it's own blood supply and reconnecting the lower portion to the veins in her lower leg. We thought the worst case scenario was she would lose her leg from the hip down. Only after surgery was completed, when they went to move her from the table to the bed, she threw a blood clot in her lungs and died.
Helen unexpectedly passed away Tuesday February 28th 2023.
Helen lived in Iowa, her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren live in Missouri. Her siblings, mother, nieces, and nephews live in Arizona. She was being treated in Nebraska. Her only source of income was social security and she did not have life insurance. As you can imagine expenses add up during this time. We have been blessed in many ways and we are kindly asking to blessed with the means to get the family to Oracle, Az to place her in her final resting place.
While you cannot heal our hearts and help us grieve, you can help ease the financial burden
Here is a break down on what you would be helping us do:
Getting her belongings from Sydney, IA to St. Louis, MO
Getting her belongings from Mexico, MO to St. Louis, MO
Getting her belongings from Oracle, AZ to St. Louis, MO
Celebration of Life in St. Louis, MO
Celebration of Life in Oracle, AZ
Traveling of her Four Children, 7 Grand Children and 4 Great grandchildren to get from St. louis, MO to Oracle, AZ to place her in her final resting place and the Food and lodging for the above during this trip Contribute
You see, we weren’t supposed to be here. We knew there was chance she wouldn’t make it. There’s always a chance that things could go wrong but she had just beat cancer. We saw her as invincible.
In October 2022 Helen was diagnosed with an extremely rare cancer called “Spindle Cell Sarcoma”. She had a very large tumor in the soft tissue of her groin. She lived in a small town in Sidney, Iowa, and the closest cancer center to her was in Omaha, Nebraska. For the next several months she made multiple trips, back and forth, spending long days and sometimes weeks.
The first step in the treatment plan was extensive radiation for five weeks. And after many sleepless nights our prayers were answered and her cancer had died! The next step was removing the tumor. She had to have surgery to have the tumor removed. And this is where things went awry. At the end of her 10.5-hour surgery the surgeons came out and said everything went great. It was a very extensive surgery. The cancer had moved into her veins. They had to graft her femoral artery, removal stomach muscle, strip a vein, and insert mesh to prevent hernia. After several days in the ICU, and about a week in the hospital, she was transferred to a rehabilitation center to help her get back to walking.
Except she wasn’t healing. Her surgery incision wasn’t healing properly. They sent her back to the hospital, another surgery, they opened her wound back up, cleaned it out and closed her back up. After a couple days they sent her back to the rehabilitation center. A few days later she was back in the hospital, this time when they opened her back up they discovered her muscle was decomposing inside of her leg. The radiation that saved her life had killed off her thigh muscle and the surrounding veins. Her thigh was not getting the blood supply it needed to heal. So they cleaned out the dead tissue and kept her incision open. It was after this surgery that we learned that our 3 options were to remove her abdominal muscle on the other side of her stomach to create a flap for her thigh and pray that it heals, amputate her leg at the knee and use her calf muscle or amputate her leg at the hip. It was a very long 10 day stay in the hospital while her eldest daughter never left her side and watched in horror as her mother developed delirium. In her lucid moments she made it clear that she did not want to live without her leg. The decision was made to try to save the leg.
The fourth surgery they went in to create the flap by removing the left side abdominal muscle leaving the top portion connecting to it's own blood supply and reconnecting the lower portion to the veins in her lower leg. We thought the worst case scenario was she would lose her leg from the hip down. Only after surgery was completed, when they went to move her from the table to the bed, she threw a blood clot in her lungs and died.
Helen unexpectedly passed away Tuesday February 28th 2023.
Helen lived in Iowa, her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren live in Missouri. Her siblings, mother, nieces, and nephews live in Arizona. She was being treated in Nebraska. Her only source of income was social security and she did not have life insurance. As you can imagine expenses add up during this time. We have been blessed in many ways and we are kindly asking to blessed with the means to get the family to Oracle, Az to place her in her final resting place.
While you cannot heal our hearts and help us grieve, you can help ease the financial burden
Here is a break down on what you would be helping us do:
Getting her belongings from Sydney, IA to St. Louis, MO
Getting her belongings from Mexico, MO to St. Louis, MO
Getting her belongings from Oracle, AZ to St. Louis, MO
Celebration of Life in St. Louis, MO
Celebration of Life in Oracle, AZ
Traveling of her Four Children, 7 Grand Children and 4 Great grandchildren to get from St. louis, MO to Oracle, AZ to place her in her final resting place and the Food and lodging for the above during this trip Contribute
Funds are being collected and disbursed by Elena Hausmann, Helen's daughter.
Recent contributions
$50.00
March 16, 2023, 6:42 p.m. CDT
$50.00
March 16, 2023, 1:00 p.m. CDT
Want to stay updated?
Get notified when new photos, stories and other important updates are shared.
In lieu of flowers
Please consider a contribution to Travel to Her Final Resting Place.
$100.00
of $7,000 goal
Show your support:
Contribute
Share this memorial website
Created with love by
Elena Hausmann (Helen's daughter).
Give to Travel to Her Final Resting Place
Give