Terminally ill Irishman, whose online appeal raised $100k, dies

The wife of a terminally ill Irishman , for whom over $112,000 (€81,000) was raised over a week in an online appeal, said the “love of her life” “passed away gently in his sleep” on Saturday.

Father-of-two Ronan Winter, a former Blackrock College pupil and Irish emigrant living in California, was diagnosed with stage four oesophageal cancer in December last.

An appeal by a family friend on a crowdfunding website and a post by his niece on social image site Imgur a week before his death resulted in the outpouring of online support.

In a post by his niece Courtney, entitled 'I'm sorry Imgur, but I could use some help', she explained that her uncle was the breadwinner but now his wife Diane has to pay for medical bills, the mortgage and the college funds of Keelan and Kiara their daughters (aged 15 and 11) are drained and their savings were gone.

Last year the couple decided to cancel their life insurance policy to concentrate on their children’s college funds with plans to renew it in a few years.

His death at 11.50pm on Saturday was announced on Sunday in a post on the GoFundMe website where donations by almost 3,000 online supports have reached $112,000,

His wife Diane recounted their final day together. “We spent the day listening to music, talking about the past and dreaming of the future. We held hands, my husband and I. I told him I loved him and stroked his hair. I sat silently and contemplated our life together, ” she wrote.

“The funny times with our beautiful girls, the joyous times spent with family and friends, and the many ups and the few downs of our marriage. I whispered words of comfort in his ear and put a cool cloth on his forehead. I recounted some stories and smiled as if it was yesterday,” she said.

“Then, I came back to the moment, to the bedroom, to the hospital bed holding my husband, and cried. And then cried some more. He was not responding. No reassuring hug, or even a reassuring look, he was slipping into the active stage of dying and so he wouldn’t wake. I knew this. I also knew this was our day, and that he could hear me still,” she wrote.

She then recalled the moment he died. “As the evening wore on, I left the room for a moment and when I walked back in, my soul mate, the love of my life, Ronan, passed away gently in his sleep. I was calm and knew he would want it that way,” she said.

She finished her post by recounting the old Irish blessing, “May the road rise to meet you”.

The campaign organisers gave a “heartfelt thanks” for people who donated and said the money would be used by the Winter family to pay for mounting bills, which include mortgage, utilities, healthcare, food, transportation, daily living expenses, as well as helping towards future costs of college education.