A love story that refused to slow down — until cancer tried.
Tyler is from Wisconsin. Jen is from Michigan. They met kayaking in Jupiter, Florida — and that was it. Engaged within six months, married within a year, eloping on a Jupiter beach. They bought a home, bought an RV, and started planning the dream trips: the Rockies, the West Coast, all of it.
They had been married less than five months when Jen was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in July 2025.
Since then: multiple brain surgeries, including two craniotomies and LITT. Weeks of proton radiation at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center in Miami — a 3½-hour drive each way, five days a week. Chemotherapy — round 8 finished, round 9 coming in December. The cancer took the mobility on her left side; Jen now gets around on a motorized scooter. She has seizures. And she is still, unmistakably, Jen — funny, stubborn, and fighting to stay here.
Her care team at Sylvester includes Dr. Macarena de la Fuente (neuro-oncology), Dr. Ricardo Komotar (neurosurgery), and Dr. Greg Kubicek (radiation oncology).
Why $35,000? The need is concrete: about $15,000 in credit-card debt from treatment and lost income, $10,000 for mortgage and housing, $5,000 for utilities, $3,000 for medical costs, and $2,000 as an emergency cushion. Every dollar goes to keeping Jen home, treated, and surrounded by the people she loves.
Jen also writes a daily journal in her own voice on the Team Schaefer Facebook page — her words, her fight, day by day.
The road so far
🩶 Why the grey heart?
Grey is the brain cancer awareness color. You'll see 🩶 everywhere Team Schaefer shows up — it's Jen's color, and now it's a whole community's.
