Dying man survives cross-country journey home to Aurora
By Denise Crosby dcrosby@stmedianetwork.com January 25, 2012 5:16PM
Surrounded by his mother Christina, left, and sisters Edith, top right and Teresa, Andy rests at their home in Aurora. | Brian Powers~Sun-Times Media
A fund has been set up at Old Second Bank to help with expenses. Donations may be sent c/o Cindy Edwards, The Andy Zepeda Benefit Fund, Old Second National Bank, 1200 Douglas Road, Oswego IL 60543.
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Updated: January 26, 2012 2:20AM
With family gathered around the hospital bed set up in his parents’ living room, Andy Zepeda opened his eyes and smiled.
It was weak but triumphant.
“You made it, Andy,” youngest brother Domonick called from the ever-growing huddle that included parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and a baby great-niece he was meeting for the first time. “We got you home. We’re all here for you now.”
For 32 hours straight, Domonick and sisters Theresa and Rose, along with cousin Cindy Gonzales Martinez, drove non-stop across the country with Andy.
In December, he had cracked his ribs when he fell from a ladder while hanging Christmas decorations at a California hotel where he worked as a concierge. When he didn’t feel better weeks later, Andy, 44, returned to the doctor and to discover he was in the final stages of liver failure. Doctors said he had days to live.
Andy had been living in California for six years but his siblings said he had talked about moving back because he missed his family. During a return home last April for the 65th birthday of his father, Andy was the picture of health. So this unexpected prognosis rocked his large family in the Aurora area. And they immediately began making plans to get him back here when Andy told his mother he wanted to go home to die.
This road trip — it began Monday afternoon on the West Coast and didn’t conclude until the van rolled into the Zepedas’ Montgomery home around 10:30 Wednesday morning — had been an emotional and at times harrowing journey for the four, who’d dropped everything to bring the dying man home.
Domonick said the doctor began crying when he learned they wanted to drive Andy home because he was too ill to fly. The travelers ran into problems early on, when they had trouble finding a rental company that would lease a van for such a long journey at a reasonable cost. After spending precious hours searching, and close to giving up, they tried an airport rental company, whose manager, upon hearing their story, handed them the keys to a Dodge Caravan at a reduced cost.
Once on the road, however, their biggest obstacle was a Southwest snowstorm that, at one point, caused the van to spin out and slide sideways into traffic.
“Angels were with us.” said Domonick. “They knew we had to get Andy home.”
Working on just a couple hours sleep over two days, the foursome — Domonick and Cindy did most of the driving, while Theresa and Rose cared for the patient — relied on adrenalin, Starbucks, chocolate and lots of humor, as well as the prayers of their close-knit family back home, to keep going. As they crossed mountain, desert, prairie, then finally Illinois, in this race against the clock, their progress was closely monitored on Facebook. There, thousands of followers offered support — and plenty more prayers — as they watched a dramatic lesson on what family is all about.
“We know what needs to be done,” said cousin Esmerelda Tellner.
“God gave us each other to get through the dark times,” echoed another cousin, Angie Nelson. “We are as one.”
Only an hour after arriving Wednesday morning from the long journey, Andy snored peacefully in his parents’ ranch house, crammed with the many who loved him.
It was around noon that he opened his eyes.
“You’re home now, baby,” Christina (Pat) Zepeda crooned, as she gently stroked her son’s face. “We’re all here for you.”
That’s when Andy released a smile. Weak. Triumphant.
“We got him here, but he’s the strong one,” said Domonick. “He held on because he wanted to come home.”
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