Cidalia Braga joined the angels above on March 9, 2023. She was at home with loved ones when she lost her short but hard battle with ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease). She is survived by her husband Joe Braga who she was married to for over 45 years, her eldest son Michael Braga and his partner Michael Mould, along with her youngest son Kevin Braga and his husband Robert Rodes, and her younger sister Ana Paula Resendes. She will also be missed by her two grandchildren of love Ashley and Devin Graber. She joins in heaven her parents John and Esmeralda Resendes.

Not many people know her story with ALS, so we wanted to share her journey for more to learn about this disease. In hindsight, we think her journey started before the summer of 2022, but life became more challenging in June of 2022 when she started losing mobility with her left shoulder. At first the doctors thought it was something that could be fixed with physical therapy because none of the MRI tests showed anything unusual. She was committed to doing her exercises to try to get stronger, but she only got weaker. She worked with her doctors to do more tests and advocated to see other doctors to get a second opinion. The neurologists at Stanford Hospital thought they found the problem and that lead to a spinal surgery in October to try to make more room for compressed nerves that they thought were causing her mobility issues. She had a successful surgery and again, was committed to doing her exercises and getting better, but she only got more weak. Her left side mobility issues were now impacting her whole left arm and her left leg, making walking with her walker in the house more difficult. It also became apparent that her breathing was being impacted by this mystery illness because she was losing her breath when walking around the house. Fast forward to January, where she was admitted to the ER after her surgeon agreed that she needed more tests. The doctors at Stanford poked and prodded and asked many questions about her mobility issues, and after the EMG and Nerve Conductor Study tests, it was confirmed that she had ALS. That was January 18th, she returned home via a gurney medical transport later that month because she could no longer sit in a car or walk more than a few steps at a time. Every day her body became more and more weak until she got to the point where eating and drinking was extremely challenging and stressful (because she was afraid of choking). She chose not to live a life confined to a bed or chair and did not want a feeding or breathing tube, so she did everything with the help of family until her body could not go on any longer and she passed away on March 9th, 2 months after being admitted to the hospital. It is unbelievable that in the course of a year, she went from vacationing with friends in Mexico in March 2022, to passing away from ALS a year later.

We, her family, had to quickly learn about ALS, what exactly it was, how it would impact her life, and how best to help her in the short time she had left. We are forever grateful for the advice, guidance, and love that the staff of the ALS Greater Sacramento Chapter provided to us during this very challenging time. We created this page so that her story could help educate people about this disease and the funds raised will help other families who have to go through such a horrible disease.  

Thank you for your donation.

With Love and Gratitude,

The Braga Family

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