Savannah’s mother enters hospice care with only a few weeks left to live

As the holiday season begins, Sara Long, a 26-year-old woman from Savannah, enters hospice care after a long battle with kidney failure.

Now the wife and mother is preparing to say her final goodbyes to family and friends.

“I wanted to make sure everything was ready for family visits and things like that,” Long said. “So I just want to make it as easy as possible for everyone.”

Long was told she had two to three weeks to live and was now preparing her family for her death.

“We expected to have more time, you know,” she said. “Honestly, I was just hoping to get through the holidays.”

At age 13, Long was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease.

“I had bruises on my legs. And that was very painful. I mean, it got to the point where some days I could barely walk and it was just miserable,” she said.

Six years later, her mother donated a kidney to her. But the new organ failed.

“There were a lot of problems,” Long said. “I’ll just say it like that. So I was rejected several times even though I was compliant with my medication.”

For a long time she thought she would get another chance at life when her best friend volunteered to donate a kidney. However, after several tests, her friend was diagnosed with lupus, making her an unsuitable donor.

“They just don’t believe I could do a transplant without dying of sepsis,” Long said.

Despite her challenges, Long remains grateful for life.

“Realistically, if I hadn’t received the care that I did, I would have died at 13,” she said.

Long’s husband, Justin, has been by her side for nearly a decade.

“Seven long years of fighting all of this and she’s… I think she’s ready, unfortunately,” Justin Long said.

“I just love her very much. I did my best for seven years and you had a good fight, baby. She lived longer than she should,” he added.

“By far. By far,” Sara Long replied.

Her daughter Riley, 4, is too young to understand what’s happening, but Long creates a hope box so Riley can always remember her.

“There are probably dozens, if not hundreds, of letters that she needs to open at various points in her life at this point. For example, their first day of school or possibly a college graduation,” Long said.

“Mommy, are you going to heaven?” asked Riley Long.

“I’m going to heaven,” Sara replied.

“That’s right, baby, she’s going to be a star,” Justin Long added.

“Yes. You can look up at the stars when you see me,” Sara said.

“I feel like I’ve already experienced my miracle,” Sara said. “I feel like Riley is my miracle. And the years I spent with her is my miracle, because it took so much work and effort to make sure I stayed alive and to save myself time to live.” and again and again.

“I would rather have 26 really good years full of adventure and full of meaning and full of love and just the most beautiful people and I’m so glad I got that instead of 100 mediocre ones,” she added.

Sara Long’s family has created a GoFundMe for her funeral expenses. Click here for more information.