10/27/2022
Meet the Hartke family. Marty and Ashley are traveling down a path that no family wants to traverse, but with a fierce love of their family and a strong faith in God, they are navigating scary waters. Please join us in praying for this family and asking God to heal Marty, so they can continue to write this beautiful love story. Sending our love . . .
Here is the story of our their journey, in Ashley's own words--
"June 17, 2022 is the day our lives will be forever changed. We had been home two hours from taking our youngest to Tumbling National’s in Orlando, Florida. We had walked down to see the other two girls at our brother-in-law(Kevin) and sisters(Mindi) house. Marty was on the couch telling a story about our trip and had a Grand mal seizure. Thankfully, we live in a neighborhood where neighbors rallied, helped Kevin with Marty and others occupied the kids downstairs and we are so lucky to have an amazing crew of First Responders in our small town. The visual of that moment will haunt me for the rest of my life, but also a small part of our story that I have since learned to be so very thankful for. You see, leading up to this moment there was no real signs that Marty was sick. He had had an occasional headache, but one that he could control with Tylenol or caffeine. Not to mention, working in the heat everyday, raising three girls with busy lives, coaching softball and basketball and being Mayor of Neoga. Who isn’t over stressed and spread thin when you are raising a family. He was taken by ambulance to Sarah Bush and given an MRI that determined a mass in the frontal lobe which had explained why he had a seizure. Sarah Bush immediately airlifted Marty to St. John’s in Springfield, Il. As Marty was being loaded into the helicopter, he looked at me and said, please be patient. This was a bizarre thing for Marty to say, especially when I had hardly uttered a word. I took those words with me into the rest of the week when my patience was tested every minute while awaiting brain surgery. Looking back, I know it was a “God whisper” from Marty’s mouth and that is where our spiritual journey began. Marty and I had become busy with everyday life and the hustle and bustle of having children, that we forgot to stay rooted in our faith. After having our third girl, life got even busier. Did you know you can’t fix happiness by having another baby, because life as you know it gets harder. Especially, when you are trying to prove to God that you can handle it verses walking beside him through life. We tried to tap back into our faith but it was a struggle. It seemed forces were strong against us and more like “just another thing we HAD to do.” While we were in the hospital, I felt myself drop to my knees and truly surrender. I had no choice, but to give this to God and let him guide us the rest of the way.
Marty had surgery on Wednesday, June 25th and we were released to go home three days later. There was so much unknown to face, but trusting in God a little more and more each day. I could feel the Holy Spirit working through me to heal Marty. A feeling I had never felt before or allowed myself to feel, because I was too busy attempting to prove to God and everyone around me that I could pull it together, but in actuality it was just a vicious cycle that I didn’t realize was happening. Striving for perfection will land you in straight up in survival mode. Two weeks after surgery, we went back to get the results of the mass. We were told he had Grade 4 Glioblastoma. Not at all the news we were hoping for, but news we had sorta prepared ourselves for. That day was rough and we were numb. After getting back home and talking with our family and trusting in the Lords guidance, we knew we weren’t facing this road alone. Family and friends rallied and prayed harder than we could have imagined. The amount of love and support we have received is still so overwhelming.
Between the oncologists at Barnes and in Effingham they had a treatment plan in place. Marty has received 6 weeks of Radiation and Chemotherapy. He definitely rocked it and made it look easy. There were some trying moments to work through, but he didn’t let that get him down. He didn’t miss working in the afternoon at the farm and didn’t miss any of Lola’s Jr High softball games. We could feel the strength of God, working through Marty, working in us to become closer to him, and to become closer to one another through this treatment period.
Marty has since had his first post treatment MRI. It showed some possible signs of growth, but we are still holding on to our faith. We refuse to believe in the statistics, instead we believe that through God ANYTHING is possible.
We are doing all the things we can to help Marty’s body fight the bad cells and find the root of this ugly disease that stemmed from within him. We are learning to control the things that we can like our diet and our emotions and stress levels that act as blockers when the medicine is trying to do its job. We continue to do research ourselves that could help him in any possible way.
The most beautiful part of our story is watching our hearts and minds change as we travel down the unbeaten path. Lucky for us, we have always loved a good adventure and we believe deep down in our hearts that this is just a chapter of the book we are writing together. We hope and pray to have many more chapters for you to read.
We are strong
Marty, Ashley, Lola, Vera, and Nora
photography by grin&barrett photography
