I'm sorry to hear this. Unfortunately, it happens more often than you might realize. Medical costs are, IMHO, insane. A friend had bypass surgery recently and the bill, including a 4 day hospital stay, was pennies short of $500,000. I asked him if he was worth that, and he had to admit, "Nope". He owes about $32,000 of that, and he is paying $1000 a month. Pity is, that $1000/mo. puts he and his wife's home sale and purchase in another city out of the picture for about 3 years. He tried to sell the house before and nobody wants it, it's a tiny house that's been added on to several times, and it wasn't done well, looks wise at all. The realtors have all suggested that it be totally resided, to make it look "all the same", but he's refused to do it, so the house never sold. The plan was to rent it to his nephew, but that's out the window, for now.

Another friend had cancer and after all was done to him, he still died less than a year later, and his widow basically lost everything and is now living on SS with their daughter and her family. It's not an ideal situation at all. as she needs to be in assisted living at this point and it's not going to happen for a while, so the daughter and grandaughter are stuck taking care of mom, while mom is trying to get everything paid off.