Please Help Karl and Honor Pat!!
Donation protected
Pat Morrison, Pacific School elementary school teacher and gardener extraordinaire, Karl Kriedt, carpenter, builder, sailor, General Contractor par excellence and all around great guy, and their only child, Rogan, have been an incredibly blessed and happy family. Karl and Pat designed and built their home together in the Santa Cruz mountains while living on the property in an Airstream trailer for almost ten years.
Living in Bonny Doon at the top of a crest, working in Davenport or the Cruz, going to school at PCS and then Stanford, life has been one wonderful occurrence after another. And they shared their good fortune. They have each done more than their part of contributing to the community, whether it be through teaching our young, helping out those in need, or simply killing it in school (read, Rogan). But Lady Fortune is a wheel, and now that wheel, which has favored them for 25 years, has taken a turn, and their fortune has been severely and sadly impacted.
I am writing to you with the hope and prayer that you will help this family in need.
In what can only be described as a Greek tragedy, Pat has recently suffered a recurrence of her breast cancer. After ten years of follow ups, treatments, careful and clean/healthy living, her breast cancer has metastasized to her spinal fluid and has launched all over her body. She sadly retired from teaching at the Pacific School, where she taught for nearly 20 years. The doctors, in a desperate attempt to save her life, placed a port in her brain three months ago so that they could deliver chemotherapy to her spinal fluid, but that resulted in more harm than good. She is now under the care of hospice.
At the same time, Karl, who has never smoked a day in his life, was diagnosed with tongue cancer in November. After losing one third of his tongue in December, a month ago he went in for a “minor” medical visit. After 10 hours of surgery and a week long stay in the hospital, he is now home, mending, but with no tongue and no larynx. He starts radiation in two weeks and looks forward to the day when he can eat soft foods. Karl has been working as much as he could before the surgery, even driving over the hill for work, while trying to recuperate from his past operation. Now, he needs to focus on getting stronger and transitioning to his new life. He can’t work for a while, so the family income stream is severely impacted. You can only imagine the hell he has been going through and the hell he has been living.
All the while, Pat cannot move her legs, has no balance, and certainly no strength to sit up in bed, let alone walk down the hall. She needs 24 hour care. Period. Rogan has been helping out as much as possible, even taking most of the “night time shifts” to help his mom out. But he is a 25 year old young man and needs to make sure that he doesn’t jeopardize his health or his career.
But care and caregivers are super expensive. Through no fault of their own, they simply, like many of us, do not have the resources to pay the $ 300/day plus needed for care for Pat, let alone any help for Karl. And Karl needs to ability and time to heal completely. The thought of him losing his wife – the mother of his only child – only to have to make that drive over the hill and back every day to keep the lights on, is too much.
That’s why I have set up this go fund me.
Our financial goals are modest. First and foremost, we would like to cover the costs of 24 hour caregivers and possibly some meal deliveries, etc. The fact that the family is all the way out in Bonny Doon makes finding qualified caregivers even more challenging. If we could build a bit of a cash stash for the family, they could hire good, consistent and reliable help, and gain peace of mind so they can focus on the emotional aspect of their lives without wondering where the money is next coming from. If Pat lives for another month, which she easily could (let’s hope!) we would need $9,000 for caregivers alone.
Second, we also want to build a nest egg for Karl, so that he has the ability to rest and recuperate from his double whammy. If we could raise $30k for Karl, that will more than take him through a year, which is what he is going to need in order to recover from losing Pat, and from his own two surgeries.
Won’t you please contribute to their peace of mind by giving a modest gift of ten, twenty, fifty dollars? Larger gifts are of course welcome!!! Even though the goal stated for this campaign is $ 25,000, my “real” goal is $50,000.00. That would give them enough money for caregivers and for Karl’s health and well being.
Many thanks for reading this, and please forward this to any kind hearted soul. Your gift makes the difference between a more comfortable end of life experience, versus a life in the type of hell that Greek tragedies are so famous for.
Thank you for reading this, and bless you! Please pass it on and pay it forward.
With much love and appreciation,
Joan
Living in Bonny Doon at the top of a crest, working in Davenport or the Cruz, going to school at PCS and then Stanford, life has been one wonderful occurrence after another. And they shared their good fortune. They have each done more than their part of contributing to the community, whether it be through teaching our young, helping out those in need, or simply killing it in school (read, Rogan). But Lady Fortune is a wheel, and now that wheel, which has favored them for 25 years, has taken a turn, and their fortune has been severely and sadly impacted.
I am writing to you with the hope and prayer that you will help this family in need.
In what can only be described as a Greek tragedy, Pat has recently suffered a recurrence of her breast cancer. After ten years of follow ups, treatments, careful and clean/healthy living, her breast cancer has metastasized to her spinal fluid and has launched all over her body. She sadly retired from teaching at the Pacific School, where she taught for nearly 20 years. The doctors, in a desperate attempt to save her life, placed a port in her brain three months ago so that they could deliver chemotherapy to her spinal fluid, but that resulted in more harm than good. She is now under the care of hospice.
At the same time, Karl, who has never smoked a day in his life, was diagnosed with tongue cancer in November. After losing one third of his tongue in December, a month ago he went in for a “minor” medical visit. After 10 hours of surgery and a week long stay in the hospital, he is now home, mending, but with no tongue and no larynx. He starts radiation in two weeks and looks forward to the day when he can eat soft foods. Karl has been working as much as he could before the surgery, even driving over the hill for work, while trying to recuperate from his past operation. Now, he needs to focus on getting stronger and transitioning to his new life. He can’t work for a while, so the family income stream is severely impacted. You can only imagine the hell he has been going through and the hell he has been living.
All the while, Pat cannot move her legs, has no balance, and certainly no strength to sit up in bed, let alone walk down the hall. She needs 24 hour care. Period. Rogan has been helping out as much as possible, even taking most of the “night time shifts” to help his mom out. But he is a 25 year old young man and needs to make sure that he doesn’t jeopardize his health or his career.
But care and caregivers are super expensive. Through no fault of their own, they simply, like many of us, do not have the resources to pay the $ 300/day plus needed for care for Pat, let alone any help for Karl. And Karl needs to ability and time to heal completely. The thought of him losing his wife – the mother of his only child – only to have to make that drive over the hill and back every day to keep the lights on, is too much.
That’s why I have set up this go fund me.
Our financial goals are modest. First and foremost, we would like to cover the costs of 24 hour caregivers and possibly some meal deliveries, etc. The fact that the family is all the way out in Bonny Doon makes finding qualified caregivers even more challenging. If we could build a bit of a cash stash for the family, they could hire good, consistent and reliable help, and gain peace of mind so they can focus on the emotional aspect of their lives without wondering where the money is next coming from. If Pat lives for another month, which she easily could (let’s hope!) we would need $9,000 for caregivers alone.
Second, we also want to build a nest egg for Karl, so that he has the ability to rest and recuperate from his double whammy. If we could raise $30k for Karl, that will more than take him through a year, which is what he is going to need in order to recover from losing Pat, and from his own two surgeries.
Won’t you please contribute to their peace of mind by giving a modest gift of ten, twenty, fifty dollars? Larger gifts are of course welcome!!! Even though the goal stated for this campaign is $ 25,000, my “real” goal is $50,000.00. That would give them enough money for caregivers and for Karl’s health and well being.
Many thanks for reading this, and please forward this to any kind hearted soul. Your gift makes the difference between a more comfortable end of life experience, versus a life in the type of hell that Greek tragedies are so famous for.
Thank you for reading this, and bless you! Please pass it on and pay it forward.
With much love and appreciation,
Joan
Organizer and beneficiary
Joan Haratani
Organizer
San Francisco, CA
Rogan Kriedt
Beneficiary
