Donation protected
My daughter tells me that I need to write something about my wife here and about our life together and the trouble I now find myself embroiled in today. That's what happens when you get old, your kids start suggesting a course of action and you stumble along and try to follow directions. Forgive me, I wasn't old until a week ago when my darling wife died of a massive heart attack at home. It was then, like someone flipped a switch, I became suddenly old and overwhelmed. So here I find myself struggling to find the words that will paint you a picture of the most amazing woman I ever met and her dream that was Almosta Ranch.
We met late in life, Melinda and I and we had a mere fifteen years together. She was Tinker Bell to my Pan and our lives were filled with love and laughter and adventures galore, for that is what she called every road trip we ever made...an adventure, and every adversity we faced together...another “adventure.” Throughout all the laughter, loving and tears she had one motto which served to guide her life: “Love all creatures, great and small” and she did that faithfully.
When I met Melinda she had one overriding dream and that was to own a small farm, a place where she could gather any and all animals, both wild and domestic who needed help or healing, and take care of them. It is only natural then that when we married her one dream became my one goal in life...to give her that farm.
Nine years ago I finally managed to find the place for her dream to manifest itself...ten acres with an old farmhouse in Missouri. She was overjoyed and immediately christened the place Almosta Ranch. Half the acreage was covered in dense woods which she refused to let me clear because it was the home of various woodland creatures and those animals sooned learned that the new owners of the land were their friends and it was common to see my yard filled with deer and squirrels, possums and coons and even wild turkeys....she fed and loved them all much to the consternation of the many dogs who she rescued from the side of the road where they had been dumped.
Our domestic animals ranged from goats to a pig, from chickens to her beloved horses all in need of homes from folks who no longer wanted them, all allowed to roam freely and interact because Melinda didn't believe in keeping animals prisoner inside pens.
We lived a happy life for a time, content and peaceful. Then, a few years ago my health declined and I had to retire early and take Social Security and her health had already forced her to retire and we found ourselves forced to live and feed our animals and ourselves on two monthly checks of about sixteen hundred dollars. We managed though. It was tough at times but we held on and through it all our happiness and love grew. Even though things like repairs around our home had to slide and things begin to break down.
Then two months ago Melinda was diagnosed with colon cancer and had to go in and have part of her colon removed. After the operation she suffered a heart attack. Luckily she was still in the hospital and they worked on her for thirty minutes and shocked her heart five times before finally bringing her back to life. What followed was her getting a pacemaker, then she had to have an operation on her heart that did not work....all while undergoing chemo for the cancer. She was home with me when she suffered the last heart attack that took her life.
So now I am left alone, the sole caretaker of Melinda's dream...Almosta Ranch. I do this now with even less income than the two of us together and faced with the coming Winter in a drafty old house who's propane heater is broken, with animals who need feed and funeral expenses and medical bills that never seem to end. Coming before you with hat in hand and begging for charity is something foreign to me and a hard thing to do but I do it gladly if it helps to keep her dream alive. If you want to know more about us and about Almosta ranch please feel free to visit my Facebook page and learn more of us.
https://www.facebook.com/david.mcclain.94 I welcome your comments and questions and thank you for your time. https://www.facebook.com/david.mcclain.94?fref=ts
Anything will help. Dad is trying to get ready for a hard winter in Missouri without a heater. He has budgeted his money but will still be short on essentials like food for him.
Organizer and beneficiary
Sara McClain
Organizer
Maud, TX
David McClain
Beneficiary