Sometimes hardworking people just need a hand. Please consider giving your hand to my very good friends, Cindy and John Maans, and their daughter, Sara Smith. They never expected to be in this position, and still they handle themselves with dignity, devotion, and old fashioned determination. 
   Sara, 38, formerly a special education teacher, has been struggling with Multiple Sclerosis for years and has become a prisoner of her own body. She uses an electronic wheel chair nearly all of the time, and has very diminished strength and fine motor skill.
   While living in Arizona as a young adult, her physical condition rapidly declined, and so did her marriage. After many struggles and with much support from her parents, friends, and family, Sara was able to retain custody of her daughter, but only during school breaks. Due to the heat in Arizona (heat is the worst thing for a person with MS) she moved back to Michigan to live with the daily care of her parents, Cindy and John.
   Multiple times a year Sara makes the very physically demanding trip to an airport more than 3 hours away (each way) to meet her daughter for vacation visits, and at least once a year an even more demanding and draining trip to Arizona for school breaks. Spending every possible minute with her little girl is the most important thing to Sara, and as a result, making that happen is the most important thing to Cindy and John. It would be impossible for her without them. Cindy, who works full time at the local Public Health Department, somehow manages to travel with Sara on all of these trips,making the arrangements, driving, advocating, and providing personal care.
   Last week, during one of these ever important trips to Arizona for her daughter's school break, misfortune struck again. Sara fell and broke her femur. Her health is already compromised and her immune system is weak...this break is a serious injury. She has had surgery, but it's not known how long recovery will take or when or how she'll be able to make the arduous trip back home to Michigan. In the meantime Sara is in an Arizona rehabilitation facility, away from her parents and away from her adult support system.
   This is where I ask for your support. Sara's dad, John, works every minute of overtime that he can get at his factory...sometime to the detriment of his own health. He too provides direct care to Sara and makes sure she gets where she needs to go. Cindy works full time as a nurse. Sara herself, can no longer hold a job, but regularly volunteers at a local thrift store, participates in community events, and raises money for MS research. These determined, hard-working people have pretty much exhausted their financial resources to give their daughter the most that they can. Airfare over the years, gasoline costs, legal bills, and more have denied them the opportunity to save for their own retirement. 
   Please consider a contribution to help get Sara back to Michigan from Arizona and to offer tangible support to Cindy and John as they continue to work hard to do the right thing. Even if a contribution isn't possible, your prayers for strength will be most appeciated. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Sherry Franklin