This is for my dad, Frank Schiepek, who has worked hard his entire life to provide for his family. He was the favorite math teacher at Birch Run High School for 37 years. Soon after retiring, my mother's health started to turn bad, and Dad spent most of his time taking care of her.

Late last year, Dad got really sick, to the point that the hospital had to keep him in an induced coma for two months and he almost died twice. When he finally woke up he was moved to a health rehab facility. The sickness and the coma took a toll on his brain and he was diagnosed with dementia. His dementia and his weak body prevented him from participating in rehab excersizes, and because of this his health care provider stopped paying, saying that if he wasn't cooperating then they weren't going to pay for him to be there.

We've applied for Medicaid to help pay, but they're making all kinds of outrageous claims to delay us from getting Medicaid, like saying that for the first month and a half that he was in rehab he was working and getting paid, even though he was so weak that he couldn't even feed himself and he couldn't talk because he had a tube sticking out of his trachea. After being there for months he got his trachea tube out, and he can talk and even feed himself, but his body is still so weak that they moved him to assisted living.  He's got his old personality back, but his memory is very scrambled.

He's doing well there, but because Medicaid is dragging their feet and not paying, the assisted living facility has begun the process of kicking him out. There's nowhere for him to go; there's no way he can return home because he's still too weak to get around and there's no one who can help him get around, so we need the money right away to pay the bills until Medicaid kicks in (which, hopefully, it will). If anyone deserves to be taken care of, it's my dad. He's spent his entire life taking care of others, and now he needs others to help him out.

I'm currently taking care of my mother, which is a full-time, non-paying job, and when Dad's well enough to come home I'll be taking care of him, too, but I don't have any money to keep him in assisted living until he's well enough to come home. My dad and our entire family would be so very grateful for any assistance that could be offered. Thank you.