After Loss and Distance, All We Want Is Time with Grandma

My name is May, and I'm a mom of two boys, ages 8 and 5. We used to live in Guangdong, China, far from my own mother, who is now 80 years old. The last time I saw her was in 2018, when my eldest was just 9 months old. Since then, life has been incredibly difficult. I faced health issues, gave birth to my second son, and planned a visit for 2020—but COVID made travel impossible. My husband Mark was working abroad and couldn’t enter China, so I raised our boys alone.

In 2022, Mark was diagnosed with stage 4 ALK-positive lung cancer in Thailand. We reunited after nearly 3 years apart. I became his full-time caregiver while caring for our children. We hoped treatment would help, but cancer progressed. We relocated to New Zealand, his home country, with hopes for better care—but we lost him in Brisbane Australia in early January, just before he could join a clinical trial. Financially, we’re struggling, having spent all our savings and gone into debt for his treatments.

Now, I’m doing my best to rebuild life here for my boys. My mom, who is deaf and in poor health, hasn’t seen me in years and has never met my youngest son. I want so much to visit her with my sons, to let her meet them properly and spend some time together while we still can.

Any help to make this trip possible would mean the world to us. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.