{"id":4554,"date":"2020-04-28T13:41:10","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T17:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=4554"},"modified":"2020-04-28T13:41:10","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T17:41:10","slug":"illinois-man-who-delivered-tens-of-thousands-of-crosses-to-victims-of-tragedy-given-weeks-to-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2020\/04\/illinois-man-who-delivered-tens-of-thousands-of-crosses-to-victims-of-tragedy-given-weeks-to-live.html","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Man Who Delivered Tens of Thousands of Crosses to Victims of Tragedy Given Weeks to Live"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Crosses<\/a>
KTNV Channel 13 Las Vegas\/YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Greg Zanis who spent his retirement delivering handmade crosses to mass shooting victims and other disasters has been diagnosed with terminal cancer with only a few weeks to live.<\/p>\n

The 69-year-old Crosses For Losses founder has been delivering these crosses as far back as the Columbine high school shootings<\/p>\n

When he was first diagnoses with bladder cancer, he was given a few years to live, but the cancer spread and his health began to decline.<\/p>\n

He is now in hospice with just a few weeks left to live, his family says.<\/p>\n

“I’m very, very devastated with the whole thing. I can’t stand the thought of doing nothing,” Zanis said in an interview with CNN.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s touched the lives of countless families, delivering and erecting about 27,000 memorials all created in his Aurora, Illinois , workshops.<\/p>\n

Illinois is currently under stay-at-home orders as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. While Zanis can\u2019t accept visitors at this time, his daughter Susie plans to host a \u201cliving visitation\u201d so people can say hello and goodbye in the yard.<\/p>\n

His friends and loved ones now want to see him and share their condolences. Given current stay-at-home orders, Zanis\u2019 daughter plans to have her father greet them from the front porch window. During this time, signs expressing memories and fond wishes will be encouraged.<\/p>\n

“God used him in a wonderful way, and I’m happy that He used him to bless others the way he did,” his daughter said. “We’re going to miss him terribly here, but the Lord is faithful, so one day at a time.”<\/p>\n

Zanis became a fixture in the aftermath of numerous tragedies when he began crisscrossing the country and making wooden crosses more than two decades ago to honor those who were killed.<\/p>\n

He started making the crosses after his father-in-law was murdered in 1996.Since then, he has honored victims of Chicago gun violence, mass shootings, hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.<\/p>\n

“I just feel it\u2019s so important to be here for the families,” Zanis told Fox News just days after a gunman killed 22 people inside a Walmart. “We’re talking about the gunman, but today it\u2019s going to change — we\u2019re going to start talking about the families and the victims.”<\/p>\n