Passed away on March 19, 2008.
Age 48 of Lake Bluff, IL. Formally of Grosse Pointe, MI. Dianne's life was cut short by a rare cancer - Adrenocortical Carcinoma.
Dianne will not be forgotten since she leaves us with her wonderful daughter Isabella and beloved husband of 12 years Neil Smith. Dianne is the dear daughter of Constance Gibbs of East Pointe, sister of John (Carolyn) Gibbs of Sterling Heights and Gerard Gibbs, of Alberta, Canada. Dianne is also survived by many friends, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews.
She was a social worker, specializing in senior services. Social work was part of Dianne's fabric of being - always taking the extra step and making everyone feel special. Dianne was just shy of being half way through her graduate studies for her Masters in Social Work with Loyola University.
Dianne's battle with ACC at stage 4 was quick and the nasty cancer won. Here is how quick: January 18 - tummy ache; January 20 - mass found; January 21 - mass biopsy; January 25 - cancer diagnosis; January 26 - hospitalized due to strokes from hypercoagulable blood as body tries to starve the cancer; January 27 through February 25 - Northwestern Memorial Hospital - non-surgical due to blood condition; February 25 through March 11 - Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago; March 11 - home for a day and on March 12 Dianne suffers a seizure and several strokes and reenters the hospital; on March 13 we enter the care of Midwest Palliative and Hospice Care Centers and Dianne passed away on March 19.
It was so fast that I was numb (I am still numb as I write this on April 10, 2008) but during these days family and friends did have the opportunity to come see our girl, Dianne, and connect with a key sentence, name, hair flip or an eye roll as the white coats walked out of the room. Dianne passed just sixty-three days from a tummy ache that caused us to go to the hospital, sixty days from finding the mass and fifty-five days from diagnosis of cancer
Her zest for life will always be with those that she touched. Your donation to the TGen Foundation will allow Dianne to continue to touch others.
- Neil Smith
If you would like to make a donation to Dianne's Memorial in support of adrenocortical carcinoma research, please click here.
