Hi, my name is Elvie.
I’m starting this fundraiser for my beloved mother, Zeny Templonuevo.
My mother was a healer. She practiced holistic medicine and faith healing in the Philippines, and for as long as I can remember, people came to her — for their pain, for their worry, for prayer. She never turned anyone away. She raised three of us: two of her own, and one child she took in and loved exactly the same. That was who she was. She gave what she had, to whoever needed it.
She got sick in May. I am the oldest, and since the day I left home, taking care of her needs has been my responsibility. I did everything I could from here — every peso I could send, every prayer I could say — but she didn’t get better. On August 30, 2026, she passed away at home in Catanduanes, Philippines — just a few days after her 81st birthday.
I could not be there to hold her hand, and I cannot be there now. That is a grief I will carry for the rest of my life. The one thing I can still do for my mother is make sure she is laid to rest with the dignity she gave everyone else — and I don’t have the cash to do it alone.
That is why I’m asking for help.
What your donation will go toward:
Her funeral and burial — the casket, the church service, and her final resting place
The nine-day wake. In the Philippines, our family keeps a nine-night vigil beside her, and every person who comes to pray is fed and welcomed. Nine days of hosting our community is a real cost, and it is not something we would ever turn away from.
The 40 days of prayers our family will offer for her after the burial, as our faith and our culture ask of us
The medical bills that piled up over the months she was sick
For anyone unfamiliar: in Filipino tradition, the family does not simply bury someone and go home. We sit with them for nine nights. We pray for forty days. It is how we walk our loved ones the rest of the way. My mother spent her life praying over other people. I am not going to let her be the one person who doesn’t get that.
Our goal is $5,000. That covers her celebration of life — the nine-day wake, the burial, and the forty days of prayers — and the medical bills left behind from the months she was sick.
Any amount helps — even a little. If you can’t give, please share this, or say a prayer for her. It would mean more to me than you know.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
— Elvie
