Alisa Linton

 

Alisa Johnson Linton, 36, passed away peacefully in her home in Lehi, Utah on Tuesday, May 19, 2015 on the morning of her 15th wedding anniversary to her middle school sweetheart, Joshua Linton.  Her three boys and beloved husband were by her side.  

Alisa was born in Mesa, Arizona on January 18, 1979.  She was the second of nine children born to Paul and Jill Johnson.  She spent much of her enchanted childhood in the country in Paradise, Utah.  Her family later moved to Sandy, Utah.  She was a successful and well-loved student at Jordan High School and later Ricks College where she earned her Associate of Science in Nursing.  After earning her degree, she worked as a Registered Nurse.  On May 19, 2000, Alisa married Joshua James Linton in the Salt Lake Temple.  She finished a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from Brigham Young University.  

 

She accomplished many things in her short lifetime.  She was an excellent student, a dedicated nurse, a talented photographer, a poetic writer and a courageous cancer patient.  But her favorite role was mother.  The same bold determination that characterized all her pursuits also defined her commitment to her boys, James, Sam and Luke.  Of them she said, "I have given three wonderful children life, but I can't shake the feeling that in some strange ways, they have given me mine."

 

Alisa was an artist and everything she touched became beautiful.  She had a gift for photography and many of her friends and family own treasured images that she captured for them.  Alisa loved to travel and experience first hand the beauty of God's creations, but she didn't need to travel to find beauty.  Her idea of the perfect summer evening was to watch her kids and dog playing in the water hole in the park. She loved to decorate, garden, cook and entertain and did it all with ease, style and love. She could also see the good and beautiful in the people she loved as well as those she had just met.  She was compassionate and would draw upon experiences of her own hard times to know just how to help a friend in need.  She was a true disciple of Christ.

 

Cancer opened her eyes and then her inspiring writing opened ours.  On her blog, she reminded us to be grateful, "to share more," to pray, to "appreciate now," and that "love is what makes us happy."  She showed us how to love life unconditionally, to trust, to share your life with someone.  She learned that "the way out is through," that "the world is kind and good," to believe in miracles and that sometimes miracles sing.

 

Alisa is survived by her loving husband; Joshua James Linton, and three sons; James Michael, Samuel Kent, Luke Joshua, her parents; Paul and Jill Johnson, siblings; Sonja (Robert), Jon Paul (Bryanna), Michael (Amy), Matthew (Brittany), AnneMarie (Nathan), Kari (Bryon), Mark (Amanda), Kirsten (Alex), and grandmother; Donna Washburn as well as many adoring in-laws, nephews and nieces, cousins, aunts and uncles.

The family wishes to thank all the people who have reached out in love and support to them throughout Alisa's fight.  They especially wish to thank the many doctors and nurses at the Huntsman Cancer Institute for their dedicated care.  Alisa had a special place in her heart for her nurses.  

 

Funeral services will be held at 11:00am on Friday May 22, 2015 at the Lehi East Stake Center at 851 N 1200 E.  A viewing will be held on Thursday evening from 5:30-8:00pm at the same location as well as from 9:30 to 10:30 Friday morning.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Alisa's name.  https://donate.huntsmancancer.org/alisa-linton

No more scans

It is sad that I am writing this post.  As you have all experienced Alisa is a talented writer and has a special ability to include us in her feelings and emotions through her words.  Alisa has gone down hill the last few days and is not really up to writing.

Two weeks ago Alisa's family fasted for Alisa so that she could feel well enough to attend Kirsten's wedding.  Prior to that day (May1st), Alisa had been in lots of pain and could barely get out of bed.  As she mentioned in her last post, Alisa was able to not only attend the wedding, but participated and helped the entire day. The day after the wedding I knew Alisa had been blessed with health to experience that day with her family, but I felt it might be the last miracle we would witness during her fight with cancer.

We went in for scans yesterday and followed up with a visit this morning.  When Carolyn came into the room she said, "Your scans don't look good, but you probably already knew that."  We did know, but it is still hard to see the proof.  Alisa started to be extremely tired and confused last Thursday.  I also noticed that her eyes had a yellow tint to them.  I finally broke down and googled what yellow eyes mean (besides the obvious fear of being a wolf).  Among other things, liver failure will cause yellow eyes.  I suspected something might be wrong with her liver. They showed us the scans and  the tumor has basically invaded where fluids get into the liver.  This means that instead of the liver filtering out the toxins, they are spreading throughout the body (this may not be medically accurate).  This causes the yellow eyes, swelling in the feet, and confusion.

We were scheduled for another round of chemotherapy today, and we had decided yesterday that we would not be doing it, but Carolyn confirmed and said that her body would not be able to handle the chemotherapy.

So, we are officially out of options.  We have experienced many miracles over the last 8 years and have been blessed to enjoy them with Alisa. 

We will start hospice today.  Carolyn said we are now talking about weeks left.  I selfishly hope that Alisa will somehow hang on a bit longer.  For her sake, I hope she gets to heaven quickly.  I hear heaven is a beautiful place, shortly it will be more beautiful than ever.

-Josh

It has been an interesting three weeks.  Full of good days and bad. 

My baby sister was married Friday.  We were very worried I was going to be too sck to be able to make it.  I had developed sever spasms shooting down my legs.  They hurt like crazy and scared me to death.  This is my parents 9th and last child to be married.  it was very important to me to be there.

They put me on some drugs used for MS and a couple days before the weeding the spasms suddenly stopped and I was able to enjoy time with my whole family.  My nausea also subsided for a few days, as well as the pain from my tumors. 

Right on queue, symptoms have returned.

We just had a thunderbolt hit near the house, and for the first time in our married life we have a child sleeping on the floor in our room.

I am scared, but not unprepared. My legs have started to swell.  I went to the doctor Wednesday and had 2.5 liters of fluid drained from my abdomen.  There may be need for a permanent drain there in the future, because it all seems to have come back.

We are working with Palliative HomeCare and will decide after our next scans if we want to move to Hospice.

We are grateful for all the help we have been receiving.  Truly the world is a kind place that will soften my children's blows. We wish we knew when this was going to happen, but the general consensus from the doctors is that there is no way to know.