Bill has taken a drastic and quick turn for the worst. Just a few weeks ago he was fine, and now, what feels like overnight, he cannot function much on his right side, his hand doesn’t do what he tells it to. He is falling and stumbling often, and the headaches are now a constant. He had an MRI Tuesday, and it revealed that the brain radiation damage has lessened with treatment, but that it was covering up a massive tumor growth that had been hiding behind that damaged tissue. Which means the chemo hasn’t been working for some time. The previously plan to radiate the new tumors got thrown out the window and they are now telling us there is very little more they can do. The goal line has shifted dramatically from trying to stabilize things to slowing down the inevitable. We are devastated. Beyond devastated. We did all the things, the trials, the reg meds, the sticker hat, the hollistic meds, and this cancer hasn’t paused a minute.
He had to quit work with this news and the hand decline this week and so we are now going to have to switch health insurance and the new coverage won’t cover much. On top of increased hospital stays and expenses and an ever increasingly expensive household economic budget. We need help. We appreciate all that so many have done for us to date, and are asking for assistance during this time for him now.
Maddie is already in therapy, but will definitely need some more as she overheard the doctor tell us he has only months to live. Her comment was “wait so I won’t have a daddy anymore” as she burst into tears breaking my momma heart further. This is too much for her shoulders. It’s so unfair. I struggle to understand the purpose in this. And struggle more to understand how I’m going to raise two girls alone, without my partner, without my love, without their dad. I’m completely broken inside at this time.
We know many of you want to come to see Bill, we just ask you let us know ahead of time as we are obviously trying to spend a lot of time together as a family.
Unfortunately, as we’ve started navigating this we’ve received a disgustingly large lack of support from Bill’s employer, no long term disability payout, despite deducting from his paycheck for the insurance each pay period and no continuation of benefits at all. No survival benefits, no dependent benefits. It’s all gross the response he’s gotten and way he’s being treated. 🤬😭💔 The hardest truth, is the lack of any type of life insurance for the girls. It’s devastating, just devastating.
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Tara Peterson Miekka
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Tara Peterson Miekka
OKEMOS, MI
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Fundraiser Updates (2)
June 14, 2025
Tara Peterson Miekka
We’ve been asked a few times for an update and they are hard for me to give. Bc I hate seeing him struggle, and putting that struggle into words is giving truth to the situation I so desperately wish were different. Life looks a little different these days. Life looks a lot different these days. I try, with every breath to breathe life into our family, to do things together, to have memories and pictures, but I’d be lying if in that I didnt admit to the immense difficultly in doing so. And there are so many situations I want his input in, bc he’s my partner and that’s how we’ve operated for years, and he can’t help me even in that way much anymore. It’s grieving in advance, the life we had, the life we expected, the difficulties we are facing, his struggle to accept that in two months he’s lost the ability to read, see out of one eye, walk, talk, type, stand, play with his children, hug me, dance around the kitchen etc. If I’m struggling, imagine his viewpoint of that decline. 💔😭
Bill is having more and more issues with speech, and being unable to fully communicate his thoughts. So if you’re messaging him, or calling him, I just dont want you to be surprised if he can’t respond, or get his thoughts out into words in the right way.
Unfortunately, we are still having at least one seizure a week now, and usually two. Life is difficult. His right side is completely non functioning. And even transitioning him from chair to couch to chair to bed is growing more and more difficult. He cannot get upstairs any more so we are also transitioning the downstairs bathroom to be able to accommodate him and coming up with creative ways to do that for showers etc.
The girls are showing more signs of trauma, with Maddie clinging at odd times to different people and confessing the other day that she didn’t want to go home bc she was sad about it. Meanwhile Eliza just gets upset when she can’t get the affection she’s used to, she wants cuddles all the time, sometimes he’s sleeping and that’s not possible and she just doesn’t understand why she’s told no when it’s her daddy, or why he can’t tuck her in. It all breaks my heart to see them struggle.
Bill meanwhile is sleeping a large majority of the days now. He gets tired very quickly and where before we would have a short nap in the afternoon, now we have a morning, afternoon and evening one. He’s missing out on a lot, and gets upset about it, but is just too tired, and if he does push too hard, he ends up seizing. So we don’t want that either. He’s back to having regular and bad headaches, which is the biggest sign, If all the rest wasn’t, of progression. So it’s just an added extra hard season of this journey and as we seek the next set of answers as to what is happening in his head, I still pray for a miracle, but fear the worst. 💔😭
May 29, 2025
Tara Peterson Miekka
Bill has been pretty seizure unstable lately. They are long, terrifying, and knock him completely out and off his socks. And each one, brings with it additional right side paralysis. He is extremely weak these days, losing muscle mass faster than I can blink, and he’s so very very frustrated with it. It is devastating to watch and be an intimate part of and hard to see him upset and struggling, the one on the ship made it more of a challenging hardship than I was prepared for. As I tell stories of our fun it’s helped, sort of therapy to realize there WERE good parts, and there will be memories but also that it’s ok that they be intermingled with the hard. Eliza tells her story of the trip with a “and then daddy fell, and then we drank ice. And then…” as if it’s just part of it. And I’m learning to do the same. Bc it WAS a good trip. And then we got home and have redone the house w a ton of extra accommodations to help assist him in this newest immobile period. Hospice will cover so much of what we are experiencing now, but we aren’t quite at that point, so no coverage, Bill wants to fight for as much time with his girls as he can, and is working hard to maintain his current status w pt and ot and speech therapy each here twice a week trying to move those physical and mental muscles. And 
unfortunately hospice doesn’t allow for continued treatments, so that’s all out of pocket for now.
His brain scan last week shows his tumor is stagnate. And considering it went from those two tiny dot tumors to his entire left side brain in 10 days in March, I’ll take stable every day of the week! And so we continue the medicine game of what dose is enough to make the seizures stable too? And it’s hard. And frustrating. And anyone who has seen a seizure or the aftermath of a seizure understands my trauma and the fear of my children seeing yet another one and being more traumatized themselves-let alone me. Though, as the doctor and those before warned, I am quite the pro now, unwilling as it is. So while we add all this equipment and changes to the main floor of the house we ask for help yet again. And thank you so much for all the support and help you’ve shown to date. We are so humbled and grateful.
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Tara Peterson Miekka is the organizer of this fundraiser
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Tara Peterson Miekka
OKEMOS, MI
Fundraising for
Tara Peterson Miekka
Fundraising forTara Peterson Miekka
Donation protected
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Bill has taken a drastic and quick turn for the worst. Just a few weeks ago he was fine, and now, what feels like overnight, he cannot function much on his right side, his hand doesn’t do what he tells it to. He is falling and stumbling often, and the headaches are now a constant. He had an MRI Tuesday, and it revealed that the brain radiation damage has lessened with treatment, but that it was covering up a massive tumor growth that had been hiding behind that damaged tissue. Which means the chemo hasn’t been working for some time. The previously plan to radiate the new tumors got thrown out the window and they are now telling us there is very little more they can do. The goal line has shifted dramatically from trying to stabilize things to slowing down the inevitable. We are devastated. Beyond devastated. We did all the things, the trials, the reg meds, the sticker hat, the hollistic meds, and this cancer hasn’t paused a minute.
He had to quit work with this news and the hand decline this week and so we are now going to have to switch health insurance and the new coverage won’t cover much. On top of increased hospital stays and expenses and an ever increasingly expensive household economic budget. We need help. We appreciate all that so many have done for us to date, and are asking for assistance during this time for him now.
Maddie is already in therapy, but will definitely need some more as she overheard the doctor tell us he has only months to live. Her comment was “wait so I won’t have a daddy anymore” as she burst into tears breaking my momma heart further. This is too much for her shoulders. It’s so unfair. I struggle to understand the purpose in this. And struggle more to understand how I’m going to raise two girls alone, without my partner, without my love, without their dad. I’m completely broken inside at this time.
We know many of you want to come to see Bill, we just ask you let us know ahead of time as we are obviously trying to spend a lot of time together as a family.
Unfortunately, as we’ve started navigating this we’ve received a disgustingly large lack of support from Bill’s employer, no long term disability payout, despite deducting from his paycheck for the insurance each pay period and no continuation of benefits at all. No survival benefits, no dependent benefits. It’s all gross the response he’s gotten and way he’s being treated. 🤬😭💔 The hardest truth, is the lack of any type of life insurance for the girls. It’s devastating, just devastating.
Fundraiser Updates (2)
June 14, 2025
Tara Peterson Miekka
We’ve been asked a few times for an update and they are hard for me to give. Bc I hate seeing him struggle, and putting that struggle into words is giving truth to the situation I so desperately wish were different. Life looks a little different these days. Life looks a lot different these days. I try, with every breath to breathe life into our family, to do things together, to have memories and pictures, but I’d be lying if in that I didnt admit to the immense difficultly in doing so. And there are so many situations I want his input in, bc he’s my partner and that’s how we’ve operated for years, and he can’t help me even in that way much anymore. It’s grieving in advance, the life we had, the life we expected, the difficulties we are facing, his struggle to accept that in two months he’s lost the ability to read, see out of one eye, walk, talk, type, stand, play with his children, hug me, dance around the kitchen etc. If I’m struggling, imagine his viewpoint of that decline. 💔😭
Bill is having more and more issues with speech, and being unable to fully communicate his thoughts. So if you’re messaging him, or calling him, I just dont want you to be surprised if he can’t respond, or get his thoughts out into words in the right way.
Unfortunately, we are still having at least one seizure a week now, and usually two. Life is difficult. His right side is completely non functioning. And even transitioning him from chair to couch to chair to bed is growing more and more difficult. He cannot get upstairs any more so we are also transitioning the downstairs bathroom to be able to accommodate him and coming up with creative ways to do that for showers etc.
The girls are showing more signs of trauma, with Maddie clinging at odd times to different people and confessing the other day that she didn’t want to go home bc she was sad about it. Meanwhile Eliza just gets upset when she can’t get the affection she’s used to, she wants cuddles all the time, sometimes he’s sleeping and that’s not possible and she just doesn’t understand why she’s told no when it’s her daddy, or why he can’t tuck her in. It all breaks my heart to see them struggle.
Bill meanwhile is sleeping a large majority of the days now. He gets tired very quickly and where before we would have a short nap in the afternoon, now we have a morning, afternoon and evening one. He’s missing out on a lot, and gets upset about it, but is just too tired, and if he does push too hard, he ends up seizing. So we don’t want that either. He’s back to having regular and bad headaches, which is the biggest sign, If all the rest wasn’t, of progression. So it’s just an added extra hard season of this journey and as we seek the next set of answers as to what is happening in his head, I still pray for a miracle, but fear the worst. 💔😭
May 29, 2025
Tara Peterson Miekka
Bill has been pretty seizure unstable lately. They are long, terrifying, and knock him completely out and off his socks. And each one, brings with it additional right side paralysis. He is extremely weak these days, losing muscle mass faster than I can blink, and he’s so very very frustrated with it. It is devastating to watch and be an intimate part of and hard to see him upset and struggling, the one on the ship made it more of a challenging hardship than I was prepared for. As I tell stories of our fun it’s helped, sort of therapy to realize there WERE good parts, and there will be memories but also that it’s ok that they be intermingled with the hard. Eliza tells her story of the trip with a “and then daddy fell, and then we drank ice. And then…” as if it’s just part of it. And I’m learning to do the same. Bc it WAS a good trip. And then we got home and have redone the house w a ton of extra accommodations to help assist him in this newest immobile period. Hospice will cover so much of what we are experiencing now, but we aren’t quite at that point, so no coverage, Bill wants to fight for as much time with his girls as he can, and is working hard to maintain his current status w pt and ot and speech therapy each here twice a week trying to move those physical and mental muscles. And unfortunately hospice doesn’t allow for continued treatments, so that’s all out of pocket for now.
His brain scan last week shows his tumor is stagnate. And considering it went from those two tiny dot tumors to his entire left side brain in 10 days in March, I’ll take stable every day of the week! And so we continue the medicine game of what dose is enough to make the seizures stable too? And it’s hard. And frustrating. And anyone who has seen a seizure or the aftermath of a seizure understands my trauma and the fear of my children seeing yet another one and being more traumatized themselves-let alone me. Though, as the doctor and those before warned, I am quite the pro now, unwilling as it is. So while we add all this equipment and changes to the main floor of the house we ask for help yet again. And thank you so much for all the support and help you’ve shown to date. We are so humbled and grateful.
Organizer
Tara Peterson Miekka is the organizer of this fundraiser
