Hello!  My name is Yvonne Nelson (Bonnie Owen in college).  We are trying to raise money in order to prepare Jerry Mertz's home in Corpus Christi for him to move back into. 

Jerry had a stroke in December of 2014, and has been in a nursing home in Rockport ever since, mainly because he was in the middle of re-modeling his bathroom and kitchen when he had the stroke. 

He needs to have at least his bathroom in working order before he can be released from the nursing home (in which they say he doesn't belong at this point). 

He is receiving some help from the system, but all the money he receives, at this point, is earmarked for the nursing home, and he owes some money for the period before which he started receiving assistance. 

He has improved a lot to where he could be independent and care for himself IF he had a working bathroom.  We just want to help him to fix up his home so that he can return to it.  He now uses a walker (and sometimes he leaves it in another room), having progressed from the wheelchair he was using before.

We don't know if we'll need anywhere near this amount of money to do the work ourselves, but any extra would be donated to Jerry for other expenses -- at present, he owes over $10,000 to the nursing home.  His Social Security Disability benefits now take care of his monthly expenses, but he still owes them from before they were able to get him on Disability.

We are traveling from Houston to Corpus every other weekend to work on his house, and would be so grateful for any help you can offer. 

Additionally, if people want to sign up for work parties, etc. , please private message me and we'll see what we can work out, okay? 

Again, thanks for your concern and desire to help us out. 

Yvonne

P.S. Please remember to click on "latest update" to see latest pictures and descriptions of work ongoing, and then click on the update numerals (there are 20 updates at present) to see other updates.