Community Corner

Widowed Father Fundraises for Cancer Support Center

Carlos Randolph lost his wife, Margie in January. He's now raising their two young children alone.

Kindness and love exude from the voice of Tower Lakes resident Carlos Randolph. In conversation with the father of two, you’d never know the profound loss he and his family have recently suffered.

Surrounded by family, Margie Randolph took her final breath in early January of 2012. Carlos lost his wife and best friend, and the couple’s two young children, aged 2 and 4 lost their mom. 

Margie spent her final days at Hospice and Palliative Care in Barrington. Carlos describes his wife’s last moments with joy instead of sorrow.

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“I’d never seen something that beautiful,” he said. “It was a very fortunate thing. All of our family and friends were with her. When she passed, there were 20 or 25 of us there…we had no regrets or anything. Not even anger.”

Margie fought breast cancer since being diagnosed with the disease in the summer of 2009, shortly after the couple’s son Noah was born. She went to Good Shepherd Hospital because she was experiencing some pain when the news was confirmed.

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“The doctor said we need to get her to the ICU. She was 15 minutes away from a massive stroke,” Carlos said.

Wellness Place

Since her diagnosis, Margie depended on the counselors at Wellness Place in Palatine for both counsel and support.

“Throughout everything, all the way to the end, her counselor Kathy had made herself available in any shape or form. It was something that really helped her,” Carlos said.

Wellness Place is a non-profit cancer education and support center. The organization provides its services to anyone affected by cancer. The organization helped Margie deal with the emotional troubles that come with a terminal diagnosis, and is now helping her daughter to cope with her death.

“One of our biggest concerns was our kids…especially for my daughter, how to help her handle this,” Carlos said. “A little bit after she passed, I started taking my daughter there.”

Since Wellness Place operates only on donations, Carlos wanted to give back to the organization that gave so much to his family.

“They ask for nothing. It’s completely free to us. We made a commitment that anything we could do to help them out, we would do. I didn’t want flowers when Margie died, I wanted donations to go there,” he said.

One of Wellness Place’s biggest fundraising events is the Wellness Walk/Run which is being held on May 20 at the South Barrington Arboretum. Carlos has organized a team for the walk called, “Hannah’s Hope”. The team, named after his daughter, is already a top fundraiser for the event.

“Wellness Place made a difference in three years in how Margie lived. That’s what helped her get through that and be strong. To me, there can be no more important thing than that,” Carlos said.

To donate to Wellness Place, click here. For more on Wellness Walk, click here.


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