It all happened so fast. One day Margi Lakes moved out of her house and in with a niece, the niece soon noticed that Lakes’ did not seem healthy, cancer treatments started and then stopped, and Lakes passed away in hospice care in April.
Less than four months passed from the day she moved to the day the longtime employee of the Rocky Fork AMVETS and Hillsboro Eagles died.
“Margi was a very caring and loving person,” said Mica Napier, the niece Lakes moved in with. “She was always helping members of the Eagles and AMVETS, or visiting the nursing homes and helping people she knew there.”
Now her friends are trying to help Lakes with medical bills she left behind from her cancer treatments and funeral expenses. A benefit for Lakes will be held Saturday, May 8 at the Rocky Fork AMVETS, located at 11541 N. Shore Dr. The event starts at 4 p.m. There will be pulled pork sandwiches and side dishes for $6, raffles and an auction starting at 6 p.m., and live music by the Stiff Legged ‘Possum Band at 7 p.m.
Lakes found out she had cancer on Feb. 19. She passed away on April 5.
It was in December, Napier said, that Lakes started having some electrical problems at her home. So she moved two houses down into Napier’s residence. In January, Napier said she noticed that Lakes was not acting quite right.
“She was coughing and stuff and I told her she needed to go to the doctor,” Napier said. “But she kept putting it off.”
Then one day one of Lakes’ three children, Emmy Lakes, stopped by and took her to Highland District Hospital. Before long she was transferred to the James Cancer Center in Columbus.
“They did five or six radiation treatments but stopped because she was so weak. She couldn’t breathe,” Napier said. “The tumor in her lungs was so large that they said there was nothing more they could do.”
Lakes was 65 when she passed away.
Donations for the benefit’s raffles and auction are requested and will be greatly appreciated, organizers of the benefit said. To make a donation or to make arrangements to have a donation picked up, call Teresa Collins at 937-402-6828, or for more information call the AMVETS at 937-393-2900.
“They are absolutely great — it’s wonderful,” Napier said of the benefit and those organizing it. “They are really good people and they’ve done so much already. I can’t say enough good about them.”
Reach Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522.
