Chapter 2 — Roaring Goddess
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AManda sy Riley had a year at first, first time creating a blog, first time becoming a mother, first time diagnosed with hodgkin slm, former first time beating cancer and first cancer reels. AManda had thought she'd won, but only a few months later, an email was sent around to family and friends.

We are reaching out to all of you to share some sad news today. Unfortunately, we found out a few days back that a man is hedged. Kingsley former has returned.

Among his goal with her blog was, too.

not only keep friends and family in the loop, but serve as a resource to all those newly diagnosed.

But IT wasn't AManda that brought the news to her followers about her village SE IT was her mother. Peggy SHE was invited to post a gas blog, and IT was titled the roaring godless.

A man invited me a week ago or so to start contributing to her blog. How is IT that the universe could dare threaten to take our beautiful daughter for us with this disease? Screw you, cancer. I've been lashing out like an angry linus since August with the real pse of AMandas hodges .

kingsland former i'm charlie webster. You're listening to skanda.

Peggy was clearly struggling with her daughter, AManda er's cancer. The blog snapped to become an outlet for the family, and IT was a way for other's to support two.

One major supporter .

was a woman called rebeca Catherine, who worked with Peggy.

I was working in real estate that I was getting divorce. I was looking to make a change, get back out of, I guess. And at the time, I had a really good relationship with my uncle.

Then you are also in real date. And they were working on an idea, and they had approached me about coming and working with them. They were looking at the opportunity of .

buy homes at auction.

And they had somehow been introduce to a woman who was working in a company where they were doing that. And that was pty. I think I met her like a starbucks in rubble side, which is where he lived in, which is where the business was going .

to be based on the river is about two hours east of.

We just instantly hit IT off, instantly got along. I loved her vibe. SHE was personal.

SHE was kind. SHE laughed. I was excited to be able to her partner.

I moved to riverside, and I had been there for as far I know, like her entire life. And I knew no one. I moved out there. I got my apartment and basically all I did was work.

I just didn't have a social circle or anyone in person outside of so everything I asked, like every recommendation I asked, like my hair dressing was from eggy because I didn't have any knowledge of the area. He he wasn't this cave mom, or like adopted and t role for me. And he was the one that I went to when I think something was happening. And I felt like I had that relationship, not just because I worked with, but because SHE had opened herself up to be that person for me.

Rebeca became a part of AManda's close circle after Peggy introduced them to each other.

The first time I met me and dad, we were going to our favorite sushi restaurant in riverside. We meeting her and her physic e at the time, corry, just to meet them. And and i've heard about him on that.

He always told me, you too, we get along so well, like you just totally be friends, love each other. I can't wait for you to meet. So i'm that man.

And then or SHE was fabulous, like warm, funny, interesting, like all of the things that I would looked for. And I said, it's too much. Don't live in rivers.

I in new work because I ve, like no friends here, courted nice. But I was, I amount, I was sitting each other. So we were, did you talking, docking and talking. So I didn't spend a lot of time talking to cry that day. They just seemed like a great people.

I mean, I knew that he was divorced and they had a daughter, and he just seemed like an ideal scenario hava man that, you know, as a little girl set on. Everything that I could ever said was really positive. SHE seemed to really like him to thought they were a great match.

SHE was very excited for them to get married. I do remember her some conversation about his x wife. SHE you a do a utter that say something about the fact that he had a chAllenging and I like I was literally crushed, divorced so I didn't see a lot of character that I was just like, friendly god, I I didn't have a child of my eggs.

We met a man das hobby cory, at her college graduation long before they were more than friends. That mother's intuition kicked in the fairy tail is history.

They feel me this funny thing about, like labels jasa his daughter.

her to her, her bonus daughter.

And instead of a stepdaughter, bonus daughter.

AManda loves sharing their life with her bonus daughter, who took my joke nickname and ran .

with the Peggy wasn't grammar SHE was gotten that was self annoyed.

you think? God, this sounds egotistical. I couldn't give a crap.

AManda was bonus mom, and I was her bonus daughter, not stepped up or step mom, but they basically was saying that they were fighting to get full custody because her mom wasn't in her to school.

Like how.

We met a man is started off. Her stepdaughter, jasa was a new student at the school.

This is lisa barry. Among the option downs of the ongoing custody battle to decide where AManda's bonus daughter, justice was going to live, SHE was thrown around a number of different schools. At one point, SHE landed red at the same school's lesser daughter, SHE, and a husband, Steve, quickly became friends with a ma and coy. My daughter .

noticed this girl at the school, in her classroom, telling the kids how her step mother was so wonderful and her mother was so hard, claiming he had had problems at home. I actually called the teacher and I said, you know, I think this Young girls having some problems in her home SHE Pearls to really like her set moa lot, but she's having the issues with her mother. Mandy called me.

SHE gotten touch with me after he heard that I had reached. And SHE was talking about how he loves her step daughter and that her mother's terrible and putting them to a lot has been very hard on the child. And I, oh wow, SHE wanted to meet me, and we met shortly after that, he brought just over, and we talked in.

And the next thing I knew they were just in our lives thought he was charming and that he was very sweet. I thought, what a loving step mother SHE cares deeply for this little girl. And the little girl appeared to care deeply for her.

They just seem like this very sweet Young family. I like them just. I was very sweet, very charming little girl. My daughter liked her very nice.

they.

Saw each other a lot because amended and curry were around a lot. We have have dinner the'd have dinner. Our house, uh, we went to their house for dinner.

birthday parties together.

A man had a birthday party for just SHE in the entire class to their house. This was the first time I see that house. I had a lost get to address, but IT was not lost of schools.

And I remember when we were driving over there to this party that thinking, I know this isn't los catto school district, and I thought that was pretty odd, that he would be having a birthday party inviting the whole class to their house that was not in the district. IT struck me as odd. And then within a week, obviously, one of the parents had reported her, because within a week, justice was notified that he could not be at the school because he was not in the district. And amend told me that he was her mother who told that he was in the district, and they talked to the school and the school said we would let her stay, but because the mother's giving her a hard time, she's going to have to leave when he told me that that, well, that's unusual for me.

IT was natural. Oh, here's another family we've met at school. Making friends with other parents is common, and we like to get to know, and I just enjoy time spending together, the kids being together and that kind of thing.

So and we were relatively newly married about two, three years by that time. So we were still in the early part of our marriage. And so that was fun. And we're looking forward to making new friends. So IT was a happy time.

We did have lots of friends. We ve always had lots of friends, and we had lots of parent friends as well. And one thing I will say is AManda and cory came on very strong and they didn't want to kind of dominate a lot of our time, which is a little uncomfortable for me.

I thought corry was genuine. I could see that he was devoted to AManda. He appeared to be devoted to gesa and very engaged with her. He seemed to be charming and honest. He was working on growing a business and trying to develop his career.

He was like a really not for the nice husband who was always doing things with the kid taking care for a monday, always.

This is a monday and cores babysitter. M hasty again, if you remember, we heard from her in episode .

one corry mention jasa. I said, who's gesa? He says, all is my daughter I said, you have a dollar he says, yeah, he was a one I said one nights down he says, yeah, he was a bouncer at the bar.

He met this woman and he was a one nigh stand, and he didn't all, he had a kid and he found them not. He has a dollar. Sa, that's what I knew about A, I didn't ask too many questions.

I didn't say much, but they project into my health later, like talking about getting just and bringing just up to my house to meet me. You know, they came over there with just a one time couple of time was after that too, just was staying with them on weekends. Now they want to have .

a more .

amount that was saying once that just er's mother, she's not really good mother, and just a cries to her. So they wanna get a custody.

Of course. Corey daughter jess a was not the product over one nightmare. Su's mother, a litter, had been married .

a corry for mary half years. He was thought, I wasn't good enough parent. I wasn't a good enough parent.

I couldn't make decisions for her. I wasn't know any decision I made for her. Wasn't good, tough. I could not even get a haircut without him complaining. literally.

I took her to get a haircut and then they went, took her to get another haircut, like after that, saying that I got her beings cook cricket. IT was constantly instilled into her that I couldn't do anything right. And school was just one more thing. Tried, I think, four or five times to get forecast to be over the years.

AManda and quality, with desperate to get full custody of jasa. And while her blog may not have been the best outlet for custody talk, her facebook was detAiling the custody battle in real time.

Court went, well, cory has school rights. Cory gets just on mom's days for all extra calculate. Tivy judge said his case was so strong SHE didn't even send IT to assessment. Judge gave a little a ninety days to either fix her stuff or mass up her chance if mom doesn't do IT all correct for custody.

None of IT was .

even true .

as the battle ragged on gesa, the girl at the center of at all was struggling.

I started being alienated from my mom, and things just became a lot more complicated from that point on. It's kind of hard for me to determine where everything went wrong.

What was the relationship like between you dad and AManda q member? What their relationship is like?

I remember them always like seeing happy. Of course, there are in relationships words. I'd see them argue and stuff. But as a kid, I can really like understand what exactly was happening, you know? But they they seemed.

they seemed fine. They must be hard fake you to talk about this. What kind of things do they say to you against mom?

They would always just tell me that he was lying about this, lying about that. They would insult her just to say that he was basically just lying in court and just doing all these horrible .

things Manda IT text me privately and IT was constantly little things like this. But to me, IT was huge to her, you know, is probably just her her pissing her off kind of thing. But this is one of the text messages that he sent.

IT says, legally, I am her mother and you are her birth mother. I am kreis wife. And he asked me to relay the information.

Did you ever see her is a mother tea?

I was always more of a big sister relationship. I was never really me picturing her is my mom. I knew whom my mom is.

I remember heard like trying to referred to herself as like mom or bonus mom and stuff like that. But I never called her mom, call his mom, or anything like that. I never SAT right with me.

I got a call from the school one day. AManda had written a letter just so apparently had slept in, and AManda rote a letter to the school thing. SHE had an appointment, and then SHE find IT mom. And so the school called me and he said, no.

no, no, no, no. And at another school.

the office staff called me and said, he just his mom and he said, yes. And because I need to tell you that we have just as application here for school and AManda Riley is the mother and cy Riley is the father, I said, no, i'm the mom, you know, kind of you get mad now and he said, they don't even have you done as an emergency contact and I was like, you've got to be kidding me but IT wasn't .

just just A N eea that we're finding IT difficult with all that was going on in the miss of all this family drama, things were getting worse for AManda a little to wrote e. Mail to attorney talking about what AManda was going through.

A manders cancer has relaxed. SHE will have to undergo a bone marrow transplant in three months in the hopes IT will work. If IT doesn't, the girl is on borrow time, just a sad situation. We'll talk soon.

The treatment was not cheap.

They submitted a huge bill to family court claiming a hardship. And I think IT was about two hundred and seventy thousand or something ridiculous. IT was a large amount a bill that they showed. And of course, they had some reductions on IT.

But bill was for her.

yes, like with lower my child's part to a hardship.

a leta SAT down with us, unfocused through six years worth of documents. There were hundreds of them. There was paper everywhere. We eventually found the hospital bill, a litter referred to. And he actually was a bill for over a quarter of a million dollars, two hundred and eighty eight thousand and three hundred and sixty four dollars, to be exact. SHE read a statement that corridor the court requesting a reduction in child support.

My wife, AManda is currently undergoing treatment and is unable to work due to the very high medical expenses related to AManda treatment. We are forced to file chapter thirteen back rub cy. I am requesting the hardship deduction of four thousand, six hundred and forty dollars per months for her medical costs.

At the bottom of the support AManda page, you could click, you could donate really easy. And I had a listing that said, support the Manda we set up by AManda while these brothers. And if you had questions, you could reach out to with the email address.

Nancy, the investigative producer.

I made no food to reach out to. And at some point I would come back as at that moment, I didn't want to tip my hand of what I was doing. I wanted her to continue doing what he was doing because I had a lot of lot more work to do, and I didn't want to let her know I was looking into her.

AManda's brothers launched support a anda dot com last week. As a labor of love, i'm truly in all the response and have never felt more proud. We anticipate the cost of AMandas treatment and recovery will exceed one hundred thousand dollars.

We wish we had the means to discover this, but i'm humble enough at this point to graciously accept any help offered. Honestly, it's the five dollar donations that have really touched me, some from caring people who don't even know about that. Thanks and hooks to each of you.

I have a websites to know. Anybody interested in learning more about my story, just support demanded that com. So anybody who wants to go on there and follow my story and write me on I love prayers and happy thoughts and anything else.

September of two thousand and thirty, I started donating to AManda, where I donated five hundred dollars.

AManda wasn't shy when I came to calling out the amazing donations that were starting to roll in among the pictures of our self and countless hospital beds, the I V drips in the MRI machines with the hammers and the gift baskets, the presence and the community support.

To the cave eros, you have been our biggest and most consistent financial supporters through this, and I don't think you truly understand what that has meant to us. We literally could not be where we are in the fight without you being a part of this. Your family alone, an have put years on my life. How do we even try to say thank you for that?

The donations were coming in thick and fast.

Women, they're two thousand twenty five thirty women there that I had all given our money and you know, give cards. And just the whole event was donated. Miles, I know that I had friends donated actly ended up going to the conduct.

and I gave them several pieces of sala shark member, billion.

And my mother la, and a friend, they all bought stuff. My mother law donated. SHE donated one hundred dollars. I've given all this money. I think IT was wrong.

Twenty k you guys are fabulous. Thank you. To everyone who has donated to the website my brothers created. You have officially donated enough money to pay for last month and this months treatment completely. I can't tell you what a huge weight has been lifted to have a little breathing room with all the medical finances.

Those who donated money would receive a bracelet. T with a catch phrase, team AManda on IT.

I love seeing all the brace lets everyone is wearing for team AManda that my dad is sending to all the donors. It's awesome to see all the cool places they're traveling to with you, to all of hashtag tim anda and every person wearing a hashed team and a brace. The support is overwhelming.

People donating and helping that I haven't seen in fifteen years. People I barely know, getting involved, multiple states, a few countries. wow.

But donating money wasn't the only way people could support.

Thank you. Just as any clue for setting up the meal plan service to help with meals. I'm not gonna e coming home from a ten hour hospital day to a full speed todder er seven year old and puppies cooking dinner is the lasting on my mind if you would like to bring a milor help with the expenses to get embrace, let here's the information to access to me and his personal care calendar site visit care calendar.

Many spending freely. And I am a long time volunteer with the american cancer society. I have been on many different committees and governing boards for different events for the american county society, including several different ways for life, which interestingly, now sky met AManda rally. There was a picture that I actually so have been got in the newspaper of her crossing the finish line on the survival lap, and SHE throws her arms up and he says, I be cancer. I finished him of like three days ago, and her mom told me I was the happiest day of your entire life because her baby girl eat cancer.

We've loved that .

picture so much that we used IT in a newspaper. A local newspaper ran that picture.

What was he like when you first boat to her?

SHE was joyce. He wanted to be a part of the relate for life and wanted to join the committee. And, you know, SHE was cute, SHE was charming, and he had this, this little elfish smile. SHE really could have been anything. He was lasted and detailed in every aspect of talking about her cancer journey with so .

much going on inside and outside of the house. AManda, in core, we needed more than just mahatma's daycare to help to watch the kids they reached out to. Some of their supporters include in penny.

is he just needed someone to watch the kids so they could go do some errands on our own. But her husband been, uh, on a four day stint and he was exhausted as well. And if we could just watch the kids so they could go out and take care of the stuff for four, five hours, that would be a big help.

So we did babies set and ended up being a little bit more than four, five hours. We also clean the very messy house because we're not want to sit in a mess. Kids were delightful.

Love the kids. They were so sweet. There were so many things outside of what the insurance we pay for, especially because you'd had this this year s long battle.

You know, they were really struggling on a month to month basis to make ends meet because of the added expense of her medical bills and the fact that he wasn't able to work for a while. They were so in debt with medical bills. They were in danger of losing their house. They've been working with everything from american cancer society to her insurance, but they were still you know, struggling. And every little thing they could raise would help them stay their house and raise their children, stay together as long as they could because they didn't know how long AManda would be with us.

One of the first things I tend to do is I look at public court cases to see what's out there on the people i'm looking into. There were two cases. There was a benghazi case involving AManda inquiry, Riley, and there was also a custody case involving curry, Riley and his x wife, a leader, Riley.

And in those court records, the attorneys for both of them, those cases on behalf of their clients account for a great deal of medical expense due to AManda ze, these cancer diagnosis. That's all in their affidavits, their information, they list cancer as a contributing factor to their financial problems that they filed with the courts. You're telling the truth.

right? You're not supposed .

to allow court documentation if it's not true.

Calling number one corry Riley and AManda Riley. So can I so thank you previa recent. Do you help me? Sure all from that, the test about to use the truth, the whole truth. The truth .

and the i'm under rally .

and and then you are currently unemployed.

my own disability .

ability .

OK is that permanent .

or temperature um it's through .

my bomb transport so at least speed for a .

year do either pay child that order yes can you estimate um medical expenses about thirty hundred dollars a month? Sorry, yes.

sorry. I'm sorry. yes.

Had, you know, thousands and thousands of dollars of medical bills a month. That was medical expenses. And that cancer diagnoses was a contributing factor to what he could pay in child's support and what he couldn't pay the different time frames he could have. The child was a lot in that custody case that hinged on that cancer diagnosis. When I pulled other courts papers, my first response was, oh, wow, okay, they do claim medical expenses. They do claim he even had a some of the paperwork for the bankrupcy that there was an anticipation of disability due to cancer, that he hadn't received jet, and that was twenty one thousand that he was anticipating for part of this bankrupcy claim in how, I guess you sort out bankrupcy IT listed about one hundred and fifty thousand. And indeed.

IT turns out the donations and the assistance were just what AManda needed, the next chapter of her journey was about to begin ones of amazing miracles. In a sudden turn of events, SHE took to her blog to share the good news.

This week Marks a very special week. As a friday, I have been officially labelled as being in soft permission.

But before .

you get out to convey as .

amazing as the news walls that he was now in soft emission, there was still quite the road ahead.

The cancer is currently not deductible by scanner blood, but the doctors have a strong belief that without my inhibitor drug, if would grow right back like last time, this is why I have to stay on my ridiculously expensive antibody drug, conducted until I complete the bone marrow harvesting, salvage chemotherapy, m to s whole body, and finally, an ethologist bone marrow transplant.

Despite what AManda had a head of fur, there was still plenty of good news on the .

way IT was not long after that. Here comes the miracle baby. This is one she's pregnant with.

We have some unbelievable news. Carters going to be a big brother to a healthy, strong little boy. What a world in the past four months has spent. After going to the doctors for my standard blood work, my colleagues pulled me aside to tell me the news. I was three weeks pregnant this .

blog post there's a picture of AManda. She's Young. She's cradling her baby bump. She's looking down, you know, looking up her baby to be, you know and it's it's a very touching photo.

She's wearing a shirt that says I survived with an arrow pointing at her cradled baby bump. That is, so did ee. So I survived.

so did I. I was so confused how all the doctors told me that would be virtually impossible to have any more children after completing eight very strange ous rounds of chemotherapy in two thousand twelve, after Carter with it's up IT off. I also had an iud birth control to make extra assure we were being smart.

And she's gonna stop all the treatment. Ss, to save the baby. And SHE doesn't care about her own life along care if I die, but i'm gonna keep this baby.

Remember that thing about labels? Well, this new baby was.

she's, I call my god, is my miracle baby. She's .

got this miracle.

At first, IT was incredibly scary. What if I couldn't have the baby because of chemo? Would something be wrong with the baby? But after a plethora of intense prenatal testings screenings and monitoring, we met with a panel of doctors that specialize in pregNancy during cancer and learn that this was very doable, safe and possible.

I can stay on chemo safely during the first two try masters. Then they will remove me from all chemotherapy for the third trimester. To keep my body strong and to protect .

the baby is a miracle. baby.

What did you say .

to her when he told you that he was pregnant and that he was stopping her treatment?

I remember I told him, and that you should think about your other baby. He needs you. This fun is not completely there.

You know, you shouldn't be doing that. You should save your life for this baby. He needs you. No, it's gonna have a brother and we are gonna keep the baby. I'm gonna stop all the treatment just what I remember but I didn't say anything more.

Yeah but IT wasn't just a baby. That was a miracle. While the miracle months were coming to an end, they were ending with something huge. Eight weeks after posting about her pregNancy, AManda had another round of good news to share with her followers.

Today is a great day. This shirt says at all. It's Sunny and happy, just like our hashtag happy life, hashtag happy family hashi happy, our hashtag happy kids are baby on the way, our amazing friends, our hashtag happy home and hash, I happy puppies, but right now I am most hash.

I happy that i'm done with chemo. I have officially beat cancer twice. God blessed celebration in our house tonight.

I felt really turned more so with, is this real or not? Does he have cancer or not? So every time I would read something, i'd say she's got cancer.

Like, uh, look at this photo like you. This is intense looking. This looks like he has cancer. And then I would read on a little bit further. I oh no SHE doesn't .

have cancer.

The detail and the energy and everything that went into IT just felt really real. So I start looking through the bankrupcy documents and there's just pages and pages of dead. And I figured the best place to start is going through and see what that dead all about.

And there's not one doctor, one medical expense. It's just all dead. IT took me a bit to kind of regent style, okay.

SHE bold enough to lie in her papers. Or does he really have cancer? There was definitely the struggle back and forth with how .

far would you take IT .

would someone, okay, and raising a little bit of money through donation page to i'm now using this too claim bankrupcy and paid lesson child support like, you know like how far does someone take IT? And so yeah, that was that was a tough one to think. Could somebody be possible?

Commander is hosted and produced by me charlie webster and produced by Jackson mclin AMandas blog post a red by actor kendall horn Peggy AManda's mom is red by actor jill murry hofman edit and theme music by neo para a assistant producer casey hurts assistance an editor seem a gray wall additional production support from Stephen sladen will heel and a call urban executive produced by me, charlie webster and Nancy muscatel o. Commander is alliance gate sound production engineered by pilgrim dia group.