Gabrielle's Journey to Four Chambers

03/19/2026

Gabrielle's friend Lauren Stump Davis created these t-shirts in memory of Gabrielle. From Lauren:

"My dear friend, Gabrielle Meece, passed away yesterday. I was able to communicate with her family last week to make shirts. In Gab fashion, her mom asked her "I named you Gabrielle but you want Gab Strong, does everyone know you as that,?" In which she nodded "yes." Let's honor and celebrate Gab and support her family. The T-shirt fundraiser is open until Monday, April 6th. A percentage of the shirt sales will support Gab's family. Shirts will be available for pickup at Sports Stop in St. Johns or a shipping option is available at checkout. PLEASE ALLOW 2 WEEKS AFTER THE ONLINE SHOP CLOSES FOR PROCESSING. Additional time may be needed"

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fstores.inksoft.com%2Fgab_strong%2Fshop%2Fhome%3Ffbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHjYZ0_E3ePnppw7UNk1prFNgeaFw_-gPyHZVTrbBQGklotlm70iP7-L3d-84_aem_xIifHAPk0lnNPKSUtuncoQ&h=AT6epoKrgzwccM9tuWr9FgeHgQU9S5GvpSoW2zkqFXDgtfP8hI0z7oX7p62kk7p_BVSK6454xhefH0oHkoP6JIsYfQgY7xCgQHlMbTJUYLeHiT594AqqpOj_qUHobUCU9tJhni7sasjzdQ&__tn__=%2CmH-R&c[0]=AT6HKZ5HJrJROeyi8P66CMtCTNmmhL8G5QyDFvBn0PNPoZM9HXnla-1rPTxx63v90E54aPyISaMa5V-IrM4pOqKC3xi16RcI3hvqjjJkfo50GJj8xISAARQVZajyN4cEsRDwMk8RBLipYsxg9vN7CXrF

03/11/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1avksTD39X/

Gabrielle Lynne Meece, age 40, of DeWitt, MI, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, surrounded by her family.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at the Catholic Community of St. Jude, DeWitt, MI, at 11:00 A.M. on Monday, March 16, 2026, with Rev. Fr. Dave Speicher presiding. Burial will take place at Mt. Rest Cemetery, St. Johns, MI. Visitation will be held at Smith Family Funeral Homes – Osgood Chapel, St. Johns, M I, on Sunday, March 15, 2026, from 2-8 P.M. with the family present from 2-4 & 6-8 P.M. A Rosary will be prayed Sunday Evening at 7:00 P.M. at the funeral home. Visitation will also be held on Monday from 10:00 A.M. until the time of mass at the church.
Gabrielle was born in St. Johns, MI on September 23, 1985, the daughter of Joseph R. and Anita D. (Orson) Olney. She graduated from University of Michigan - Flint with her Bachelor’s Degree in Organized Communication with a focus on event planning.
On June 25, 2016, Gabrielle married the love of her life, Gregory Robert Meece, Jr., at St. Martha's Parish in Okemos, MI. They spent over a decade traveling all over Michigan and Pennsylvania, building a family, and maintaining their gardens together. She would become the most amazing stay at home mom when her daughter, Catherine, came along in 2018.
Gabrielle was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). Given only a few days to live, she was flown to Philadelphia and received the Norwood Procedure from Dr. Norwood at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). As an early survivor of HLHS and one of the first to reach adulthood, she helped pioneer the way for a generation to follow. She accomplished many things that her doctors thought she would never be able to achieve, including practicing martial arts, graduating from college, and having a child. Gabrielle was a tireless advocate for others with congenital heart defects (CHDs) and for the sick in general. She used her skills to fundraise for CHD awareness and to make prayer blankets for friends in need.
Gabrielle loved crafting, and was very skilled in crocheting and resin artwork. She enjoyed frequent road trips around the state with her mother and daughter. The trio would make regular trips to their cabin, and other parts of Michigan.
Gabrielle was a devout follower of Jesus Christ, and a member of St. Jude's Community Catholic Church. She will be greatly missed by her church family.
She is survived by her loving husband Greg; her daughter Catherine, her parents Joseph Olney and Anita Olney; her brothers: Thomas (Amber) Olney, and Martin Olney; her niece Melonie Frushour; her nephews: Jason Frushour, Logan Olney, Gunner'V Olney, and Hunter Olney; many aunts, uncles, and cousins; and her cat Simba. She was preceded in death by her grandparents: Frederick and Doris Orson; and George and Virginia Olney.
In lieu of flowers, memorials in Gabrielle's honor may be made to American Heart Association, the Capital Area Humane Society, the Ronald McDonald House, or the National Shrine of St. Jude. Online condolences can be sent to www.smithfamilyfuneralhomes.com. The family is being served by Smith Family Funeral Homes - Osgood Chapel, St. Johns, Michigan.

03/11/2026

Hi everyone,

As many of you have heard, today marked the bittersweet conclusion of our Journey. Gabrielle passed away this morning. She died peacefully, with her family at her side.

Gabrielle has been fighting a particularly nasty, drug-resistant strain of pneumonia during her time in the hospital. Over the last few weeks, it became clear that her condition was getting worse despite all the treatment that the doctors could provide. She has had several events recently where her oxygen saturation dropped dangerously low and required maximum blood pressure and ventilator support to keep her stable. On Monday, her oxygen dropped again, and even with all of the support that was possible, she was not able to come back to her baseline. We gathered around her and held her as she passed on.

We are so thankful for everyone who has prayed to us, supported us, comforted us, and cared for us during the last year. We thank the ICU staff, who have always been calm, compassionate, and responsive during the hardest times. Thank you all of you for being with us on this journey.

As for the rest of our family, we are doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances. We have the support we need (thank you so much to my amazing mother for helping out, especially with Catherine) and are working on Gabrielle’s final arrangements. I will post details once we know more. This is a difficult time, and it will take a while for us to adjust to our new reality.

You probably know that we are Bluey family. When Mom on Bluey comforts her daughter Bingo, she recites her checklist for hard times: “I have a cry, then I pick myself up, dust myself off, and get back out there – the show must go on!” “But I only know how to do the crying one,” Bingo responds. “Then just do that,” says Mom. That’s how it feels for us right now, but with Gabielle in our hearts, we know that we will find a way to move forward.

Thank you again,
--Greg, Catherine, and Gabrielle’s entire family

03/03/2026

I know that my last few posts have been worrisome, so I wanted to post that Gabrielle is doing a little better this week. She isn't out of the woods by any stretch, but she has been stable for the past few days.

Gabrielle's breathing has been improving since she has been back on the antibiotics. She is still requiring more vent support than she had before, but it has come down from the high levels that she needed last week. She had intermittent fevers throughout the week. Otherwise, she has been tired but comfortable.

She had a seizure last Wednesday that may have been caused by coming off of the sedation too fast from her earlier breathing episode. The doctors responded quickly and she recovered. She has been on an EEG monitor since, and as far as we know they have not seen any further seizure activity. They did a CT scan as well which didn't show any evidence of a brain bleed or stroke. Fingers crossed, the seizure was just a one-time thing triggered by medications.

Gabrielle had some nice visits over the weekend with family and friends. She got to spend some time with her dad and her brother, which meant a lot to her. We think that the visits really boosted her spirits! Gabrielle can't use her phone by herself very well and is frequently tired, but if her mom or I are with her we can answer and help her video chat.

Thanks for all of your support and kind words during this tough time! The doctors have promised to be honest with us about her condition and to tell us if they think things are going downhill or if she is plateauing with no hope of ever leaving the ICU. So far they have not said this, and they are not giving up! Gabrielle is a fighter and she is going to keep fighting.

02/28/2026

Please keep Gabrielle in your prayers a lot right now. She is still fighting, but the pneumonia is hitting her very hard despite the antibiotics. The bacteria in her lungs are very drug resistant, and the doctors have been honest that there isn't anything more that they can do other than the current treatment.

Thank you for praying for us. Gabrielle has asked that everyone keep her in their thoughts.

02/23/2026

Please keep Gabrielle and our family in your prayers today. She had a good week and a nice weekend but early this morning began requiring additional respiratory support. The team has been taking care of her and doing as much as they can to come up with a plan of treatment, but with so many conditions working against each other it is hard to achieve a balance. Thank you so much for all of your thoughts, prayers, and support!

02/15/2026

I am down in Cleveland with Gabrielle this weekend. She is doing really well! She was able to do the trach collar for 8 hours yesterday and is doing more today. Her and I had a lot of fun playing Uno with jumbo size cards. Not much happens around the hospital on the weekends, which gives her some time to rest and spend time with family.

On a related note February is heart month! Gabrielle has always been a big advocate for those with cardiac conditions. Each year she helps Catherine raise money for the kids heart challenge at her school. If you would like to help out, click the link below for Catherine's fundraiser. Donations help the American Heart Association and help Catherine's School get recognized or their service!

The American Heart Association offers programs for the classroom and for the gym to help kids get healthier and perform better in school.

02/13/2026

This has been a pretty good week for Gabrielle! She has been awake and alert, and her labs have been looking good. Her heart and liver tests from last week all came back unconcerning.

Gabrielle’s main challenge recently has been her pneumonia. It came back pretty strong after she finished her last round of antibiotics which led to sepsis. The team restarted antibiotics and started her on medications for low blood pressure, and she has been responding well this week. She has not been able to get off the vent or do much physical therapy, but she has been breathing better and requiring lower settings on the vent. They were able to wean her off of one of the blood pressure meds today and are hoping to get her off of the other one soon. It remains to be seen how she will do once she finishes this course of antibiotics, but hopefully she will have a respite from the pneumonia and will continue to heal.

Liver function tests are looking good too. After the bile duct procedure last week her numbers have been coming down. They get checked every day, and the team is quick to make adjustments if they see them rising.

Catherine and I had another nice visit with Gabrielle over the weekend. Catherine even got to snuggle in bed with mama for a bit! Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!

02/04/2026

Gabrielle is officially over 6 months out from her transplant, and while this hasn’t been the journey that we had hoped for, we are thankful for all of the prayers and support that we have received along the way.

The past week has been another rough one for Gabrielle. She has been requiring more breathing support and more medications to support her blood pressure. The doctors aren’t sure what is causing the breathing difficulties and have been conducting a variety of tests. The liver biopsy from last week came back good. Yesterday, the team did another heart cath and biopsy to evaluate her heart function, and from what we have heard, that was looking ok as well. Today they did a procedure to examine her bile ducts, which did find some issues that could have been elevating her liver enzymes. Fortunately they were able to fix those issues during the procedure, so hopefully those numbers should start trending downwards.

Gabrielle has been retaining more fluid again, which could explain some of the breathing difficulties. They have restarted her on antibiotics after a brief pause. The pneumonia is hard to diagnose, since she will probably always test positive for it regardless of whether it is causing symptoms. She has been on continuous dialysis for the past week, which is gentler on the body than intermittent dialysis.

This has been a hard time for our family, especially with the cold and winter weather making travel difficult. Her mom brought back a lot of the items that Gabrielle had accumulated in her room, and Catherine was upset seeing Mama’s things here without Mama. Still, we are doing our best to make it through all of this. We have been keeping up with fun things at home like going to the mall and the Science Center, and do our best to celebrate holidays and birthdays as a family. Thanks again for all of the support and friendship that you have all provided! It means a lot to Gabrielle and to our family.

01/26/2026

It has been a rough week for Gabrielle. A week after finishing her last round of antibiotics, she started having some low fevers and difficulty breathing. They have restarted antibiotics and are waiting for blood and respiratory cultures to come back. Meanwhile, she is back on the continuous dialysis since that is easier on her system than the intermittent version.

The good news is that she seemed more alert today than she had in the days before. Her liver numbers have been coming down on their own and are close to the normal range. The cardiac biopsy that was scheduled for Friday was postponed until she is feeling better. Also, the MRI of her liver came back without any abnormal findings!

We hope that everyone is staying warm and safe this weekend!

01/21/2026

It has been a while since I posted an update, which is mostly because there hasn’t been much to report. Gabrielle is doing about the same that she was at the beginning of the year. She has enjoyed visits from family and friends and continues to enjoy hearing from folks!
Gabrielle is still on the ventilator part of the day but has been doing more ‘trach collaring’ while she is awake, often going for 12 hours. Although she is tolerating dialysis well, she is retaining fluid, which makes it more difficult for her to breathe. She has been able to spend more time off of the ventilator as they have gotten more fluid off, which should help her lungs to get stronger. She finished her last round of antibiotics last week and has been doing well so far. Gabrielle was able to use the speaking valve for a few minutes over the weekend and was able to say ‘I love you’ to Catherine over the phone!
Gabrielle’s liver numbers continue to fluctuate. Each time that they start to go up the doctors do another round of steroids, but once the steroids finish, they start to go back up again. They might do an MRCP (basically an MRI of the liver and surrounding regions) tomorrow to get a better idea of what is going on and see how they can treat it. Gabrielle is also scheduled for her next cardiac biopsy on Friday, and depending on the results they may do another liver biopsy afterwards.
It has been a long haul, and we are trying to be there for Gabrielle as much as we can, considering school, work, and the other demands of life. Winter is hard with the bad weather and the flu going around. We hope that after winter ends, spring can be a season of healing!

01/05/2026

Catherine and I spent Winter Break in Cleveland this year, visiting Gabrielle. It was a bit of a non-traditional holiday season, but we made it work! My parents were able to come down for New Years to visit and hang out with Catherine. This might have been the longest that Catherine was away from home, but she did well.
Things have been up, down, and sideways with Gabrielle’s health recently. The team needs to balance different factors which makes progress slow and requires more discussion. Her liver function tests (LFTs) have been bouncing around lately (indicating possible rejection), and her respiratory cultures are still showing some bacterial growth. The treatment for liver rejection is increased immunosuppression and steroids, but both make it easier for bacteria to grow. Gabrielle had another liver biopsy today (which went fine from a procedure standpoint) which should help determine whether there is any more rejection and will inform the next steps in treatment. Increased LFTs could also be caused by other processes, which the biopsy should help to clarify.
Side note – organ rejection isn’t an all or nothing process. Without any intervention, the immune system will recognize the transplanted organ as foreign and attack it, which is why transplant patients take immunosuppressant drugs. Acute rejection usually happens within a few months of transplant and is expected in some degree with almost all patients. It can be treated with a combination of increasing the immunosuppressant dose and giving steroids to repair the damage. Chronic rejection results from an accumulation of damage over the years and is harder to treat. Fortunately, medicine has gotten better at matching donors with recipients and at detecting and managing symptoms of rejection.
Gabrielle has been on intermittent dialysis (IHD) for the past few weeks and has been tolerating that well. The doctors are not very optimistic about her regaining kidney function at this point. To get out of the hospital, she will need to be tolerating IHD without any blood pressure support, and the team will need to be confident that they are able to remove enough fluid. Even though they have been hitting their targets this week, Gabrielle has been gaining weight, indicating ongoing fluid retention. They are going to try doing IHD more frequently and see if that helps.
It is difficult being in the hospital for such a long time, especially around the holidays. We did our best to keep up our holiday traditions, including opening gifts in the ICU, watching the ball drop over video call, and having Gabrielle on the phone when we opened more gifts at home. Gabrielle has definitely been dealing with anxiety and depression. She can’t drink yet but has been eating ice chips and gets mad at the nurses when they don’t bring her ice chips fast enough. With flu season heating up, we need to be a little more careful about visiting, but we are still committed to being there for her as much as we can!