We lost Tammy July 15, 2000 at the age of only 39 due
to infection in the blood. She was diagnosed with CML
Luekemia in March 1998 and made the decision at that time
to have a bone marrow transplant. By September that year, a
donor that matched perfectly, was found and the transplant
was done on November 6. It was a long struggle, but well
well worth it, as she did so well and by late spring of 1999
through November, she was driving herself over 100 miles
round trip to the hospital clinic every 3-5 weeks! Instead of
having to have someone else drive her twice weekly.....She
loved her independence!

In December 1999, she developed graph versus host in her
eyes, could hardly see, plus this was painful. By January,
she was in the hospital. By February, she had pneumonia in
3 different spots on her lungs. While in the hospital, she
fractured her back in two places from a seizure due to so
many medications. She had to wear a back brace from then
on.....And the pain from her back never went away.....Due
to breathing problems and infections in her lungs, she was
in the hospital, once a month. Some of the medications
affected her kidneys, so she had to have IV's at home 1-2
times daily for water and once daily for infections. This
went on until June, when she got an infection in her blood,
that caused even worse breathing problems for her and by
July 7 had to go to the hospital again. Her breathing had
gotten so she could hardly breathe even with oxygen at
home. By Monday. July 10, they had to put her on a
respirator............

I have great admiration for the courage that Tammy has
shown since the beginning, especially the last few months!
Tammy was a loving, generous, and beautiful daughter
with a wonderful smile. She had two Moms and Dads and
always said she loved having two sets of parents, as she
got twice as much love. She was 5 years old when I
became her other Mom. She made her other Mom and
Dad feel as if we were her parents too......

Ken, her fiancee, took such loving care of Tammy.
Getting up at 4AM for her IV, leaving for work by 6 AM and
checking on her during the day, doing IVs again at night
until 10Pm each day. She had one son, Mike, who loved
her dearly. They talked on the phone often and saw each
other as often as Mike's work allowed him to. She left
behind three sisters and three brothers, two sets of parents,
two grandparents, many aunts, uncles and cousins.

Tammy loved to go garage sales and went to many each
summer. She usually found things for other people,
instead of for herself. One story her sister-in-law, Kim
told; I was one of the lucky ones who got to go on a day
of garage sales with Tammy. One of those days, she had
mapped out a full day of stops for us, including a rummage
sale at a local church. We found a church with a full parking
lot and were sure this was the right one. We walked right into
the church talking loudly to only realize that we had just
interruped a wedding ceremony! Quickly, someone stopped
us and asked quietly "can I help you girls?" Tammy, still
sure this was the right place blurted out, "isn't this supposed
to be the rummage sale?" Needless to say, it wasn't and we
ran out of the church to the car to hide our faces and
laughed hysterically!

She worked in retail sales for many years and managed our
family cafe for the last two years that she worked. She
enjoyed collecting antiques, jewlry and gem shows, her
potbellied pig, Wilma, her 3 cats, traveling and going to
the beach.

Preceding her in death are her sister Tricia, brother Rick
and nephew Daniel. She loved all her family and her family
loves and misses Tammy so very much........