Rayne for a reason

Though the name Rayne has worked beautifully with our many plays on words, Rayne was given the name for a far more

 precious reason.

Melissa and Matt had the name, Rayne Anne, chosen months ago.  

She would be named after her maternal grandpa, Ray and her maternal grandma, Anne.  

Say it fast and it almost sounds as if your are saying Ray and Anne.

Rayne's mother, Melissa was born to Ray and Anne Newman.  

She is the 6th child of 7 and the youngest girl. 

She was Daddy's little girl.

Ray and Melissa on Matt and Melissa's Wedding day, July 22, 2006.

Ray loved his kids dearly and worked hard for years to provide a good home.  He was very involved in the community, serving as a firefighter for over 30 years.  He was healthy, climbing all over the hills hunting with his sons (and sometimes daughters) and brothers.

Though he was really quiet about it, he began having stomach pain.  He had visited doctors but nothing was ever diagnosed.  Finally, the day after Easter, 2013, he went to the emergency room and kept pressing the doctors to do something.  

They found he had non-hogkin's lymphoma. 

 CANCER!

He began an intense Chemo treatment.  He lost his dark hair. He didn't want to become weak so on days he wasn't really sick, he would go walking, often with a friend. It was an agonizing time, but around September 1st he was told he was cancer free. 

 He had beaten cancer!

Ray with a few of his grandkids, Rayne's cousins.

It was almost like the family could take a breath now that the cancer treatments were over.  It was a false sense of security.  

Ray caught a cold, just a regular cold, but to his weakened immune system, it was deadly.  He was always the man of steel and didn't want to concern anyone.  Nobody knew how sick he was until he collapsed on an antelope hunt in Wyoming with his son, Paul, and Braden and Cassie, two of his grand-kids.  Scott and Ken, two son-in-laws, came to get him to a doctor as Paul broke camp.

He was put in the hospital with pneumonia.  He was beginning to make some forward progress, but began to get worse.  After a week in the American Fork Hospital, they transferred him to Utah Valley hospital where they could treat him more intensely. They intibated him. It wasn't enough.  

He passed away on October 5th, 2013 surrounded by many loved ones.

The parallels to Ray's ending and Rayne's beginning has not gone unrecognized by her family.  Rayne was born with almost the same problems that took her Grandpa.  She had such problems with her lungs.  She had to be placed on the ecmo life support.

Rayne has fought hard to remain here.  Grandpa Ray has been watching over his Rayne. Rayne is truly a miracle.

Please keep praying for Rayne! Please share and help us get the word out.

Thank you!

 http://www.gofundme.com/chance4rayne