GLOBE, AZ — A beloved Globe woman, who received incredible community support when she needed a transplant, has died.
ABC15 first spoke to Lilly Machado in September 2021, when she was diagnosed with non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. She was well known for her kindness while working as a waitress for El Ranchito for more than 15 years.
The community started a fundraiser to help with her life-saving surgery and even held a parade to send her off when she was able to get that done in Mexico.
Unfortunately, her body rejected the liver. Lilly passed away just a few days ago.
Her daughter just thankful for the extra time they got to spend together.
"So, I just talked to her and I told her just how proud I was of her, for just sticking it out for 6 months... for fighting so hard and never giving up hope," said Lilly's daughter, Jackie Machado.
"She really wanted to thank everyone. When we were packing up her stuff from the apartment, I found her journal, her little notebook and she had written down names of everybody and every business in town that had donated or helped her fundraiser," Jackie said.
The family plans to use that list and thank each and every person at Lilly's upcoming funeral and celebration of life, which is set for Friday.