Jill is Julianne's sister and her husband Bill is our brother-in-law. Hanna and Jake are Jill & Bill's children, our niece & nephew. Hanna has 3 children; Talyn (14), Charlotte (10) and Drew (8).

Tragically, Bill passed away on November 21st after 70 long days in intensive care in our local hospital.

Bill had been on disability for years due to severe diabetes and Jill has always been the primary bread winner. Because he was not able to work and was at home, Bill was the one to primarily care for their son, Jacob, who is autistic, getting him to doctor's appointments and helping him around the house. 

Bill also played an enormous role in the care and raising of their 3 grandchildren (Hanna's kids) as she is a single mother. Bill loved these grandkids dearly and spoke about them endlessly!  

If you'd met Bill, you heard about his grand-babies who "gave him life"!

Due to complications from his severe diabetes, Bill was admitted to the hospital on September 12th. 

He subsequently suffered two cardiac arrests, kidney failure, and an anoxic brain injury. This occurs when not enough oxygen gets to the brain for extended periods of time. 

Bill coded (died) twice and was successfully brought back to life medically. 

Several weeks before he passed, Bill was moved to another hospital that was over an hour away for extensive higher-level care. This put an extreme amount of pressure on his wife, daughter and the rest of our family to spend as much time as we could with Bill.  

For most of the last 70 days, Bill was on a ventilator and never came off of his nasogastric feeding tube. He was also on dialysis 3 days a week.

We are now all working together to care for Jacob, who does not drive, and also the grandchildren.  

The travel to and from Columbia regiment limited Jill and Hanna's work schedules and resulted in catastrophic reduction in their income. Jill had to take a leave of absence with no pay and Hanna's work hours had to be been cut in half for her to manage all of her responsibilities without Bill’s help.   

As a result of massive hospital bills and family care expenses, very difficult choices about finances and living arraignments are being forced to be considered and will need to be made. 

If you are able to help them in any way, we promise that everyone in our family will "pay it forward" to others in need of a blessing in the future! 

This has been beyond a challenging journey, but we know Jesus has been with our entire family every step of the way and He now has Bill’s hand in Heaven!

Thank you all!

Todd & Julianne Collins

The Toddfather & his wife