Veteran Family in Need

As many of you know, my mom, Charlene Mabou, has always worked two jobs to be able to put food on the table. While working 25 years at Payless, 25+ years for the school system and now has worked for 5 years at Fred’s Super Dollar and for as long as I can remember she has always done this without hesitation as it was what had to be done for her family & their survival. In March of 2015, my dad, Ronnie Mabou, had a massive stroke and has been left permanently handicapped. Until this time, dad was able to still work some helping with the household expenses and them being able to “get by”. Since the stroke, dad is not only handicapped but can’t work and after trying for over a year, Veteran’s Affairs still will not grant him more than 20% disability causing mom to not be able to retire to help care for my dad and just be able to enjoy her grandchildren and do things now she missed out on while working 50+ years. Just a few weeks ago when I asked mom why she won’t go ahead and just retire her response was, “I can’t retire or well lose everything we have worked so hard for all these years”. Mom will be 70 years old on July 12, 2017 and will continue to work two full-time jobs, while still caring for a handicapped husband, caring for multiple grandchildren, taking care of a home and trying to tend to other’s needs before her own. After refinancing a home and refinancing a car to pay bills, mom and dad’s air conditioner went out leaving their house unbearable. After getting numerous quotes, no air conditioning companies quote was less than $10,000. I made a few phone calls and found someone in Ruston who was willing to travel to Libuse to install them a new outside unit as well as a new air handler upstairs , new duct work (as theirs was deteriorated) for $8,900 so they went with it. Since October, she has given every extra dime she has to pay for it only paying for $2,100 worth of the bill even using all of her summer bonus check. So, as you all know, mom will be 70 on July 12 but we are throwing a surprise party for her on July 7. MANY of you have asked about gifts and what to get mom so after much deliberation, we created this GoFundMe page. So, in lieu of gifts, if you’d like to give, we feel that the biggest blessing to mom for her birthday would be to raise the funds to pay down her bill for the air conditioning unit as this has been quite a burden on her. Now, as you know too, mom and dad are very private people so I’m sure that they’ll be so upset with me for even doing this but after so many questions about gifts, we feel this is the best possible gift we could give her aside from your presence at her party on July 7. Thank you and God Bless!