A Minnesota mother-of-two, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer the same day her husband died of ALS, has passed away after a two-year battle.
Tessie Sylvester was making funeral arrangements for her husband, John, the day he died in June 2017 when she received a call from her doctor in Minneapolis.
Over the phone, she told Tessie that she had stage 4 adenocarcinoma, a cancer of the glands that secrete mucus, and her prognosis was bleak.
Earlier this month, after a two-year battle and several rounds of chemotherapy, the 38-year-old passed away, leaving behind their two young children.
According to a GoFundMe page, the two boys are being adopted by Tessie's sister Jenny and her husband Chris, who have three children of their own.
John Sylvester, 44, of Minneapolis, Minnesota was diagnosed with ALS, a neurodegenerative disease in 2012. Pictured: John (second from right) with his wife Tessie and their two children, Gus, eight (right), and Freddy, seven (left)
He died in June 2017 and his wife, Tessie (pictured), received a call the same day from her doctor telling her she had cancer
Adenocarcinoma is a very common cancer, while ALS is a rare disorder, affecting around 30,000 people in the US.
John and Tessie met in 2001 when they both coached summer youth soccer, according to a GoFundMe page.
They married in 2004 and John worked as a coach for high school soccer teams while Tessie practiced dentistry.
The couple had two sons: eight-year-old Gus and seven-year-old Freddy.
In an interview with TODAY in 2017, Tessie said that John began losing ability in his right hand about five years ago.
After several visits to a neurologists, who ran many tests, John was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS.
ALS is neurodegenerative disease, which progressively damages nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.
It also goes by the names of motor neuron disease or Lou Gehrig's disease after the New York Yankees player who was diagnosed in 1939.
Over time, sufferers lose the ability to walk, talk, dress, chew, write and breathe.
The average life expectancy from the time of diagnosis averages between two and five years.
Tessie had gone in for a routine check-up in May 2017 when her doctor noticed that her blood work seemed unusual. This eventually led to a biopsy and a
