GAINES, Mich. (AP) — When Matt Hattendorf found out he had renal cancer two years ago, his wife's first thoughts were for their children, then 3 and 1.

"What was I going to do if I lost him?" said Tosha Hattendorf, 24, a stay-at-home mom. "I worried about the kids' future something fierce."

Doctors removed a tumor the size of a golf ball along with one of his kidneys, and today Matt, 30, believes he is cancer-free.

But now it's his turn to worry about Tosha. In November, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

"I thought, 'No way. I just went through this,'" Matt said. "I couldn't understand why."

To make matters worse, Matt was laid off from his job as an electrician at RS Daley in Byron last October.

During a time when many local families are struggling financially, the Hattendorfs are facing challenges more daunting than most.

Tosha's thyroid cancer — often curable if detected early — is in stage three and has spread to her lymph nodes. During surgery in December, doctors removed her thyroid and 25 nodes, 13 of which were cancerous.

She currently is on a course of radiation treatments to kill any remaining cancer cells. But her prognosis remains uncertain.

"What if they can't get rid of it all?" said Tosha, who also has had severe arthritis, scoliosis and clinical depression since she was a child growing up in Burton.

"I've been in so much pain and stress, at one point I was hoping God would take me. But I don't really want to go. I want to see my kids grow up."

Jeremy, 3, a happy, active boy, does not understand that his mother is sick. But his sister Faith, 5 — known around town as "the princess of Gaines" because of the long, billowy dresses she likes to wear — knows.

Matt's unemployment checks and food stamps don't cover monthly expenses — including past due Consumers and phone bills, a $700 mortgage payment and medical expenses not covered by Medicaid — but being without work has been something of a blessing.

Tosha, fatigued and in constant pain, is not well enough to take care of the children.

"I'm Mr. Mom," said Matt, who was raised in Fenton. "I cook, I clean, I feed, I wash clothes — I do it all."

But it's tough on him.

"I know he loves his kids, he loves his wife, and I know he wants to provide for them, to be the man of the household," said Kathleen Daley of Byron, whose husband owns the firm where Matt worked. "But at this time, unfortunately, he's unable to."

The Hattendorfs have received some help from a church in Gaines, St. Joseph Catholic Church, and family members. Despite a slowdown in business, RS Daley managed to collect $800 to purchase a high-efficiency furnace for the family.

"We've all tried to help," Daley said. "But our resources have been exhausted as well."

GRACE charity in Fenton, headed by social worker Nancy Stockham, has provided food, clothing, toys for Faith and Jeremy — even $500 in cash last Christmas.

"We wouldn't be able to get by without Nancy," Tosha said, adding they are trying to keep the faith that things will get better.

"You just keep going, one day at a time," she said. "There's got to be more to life than just this heartache."

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Information from: The Flint Journal, http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal