My name is Travis Rhoda and I am looking for help for my family and more specifically, my mother.

She has always been a vibrant, caring, and on-the-go mom and grandma, even though she has battled a nearly lifelong illness called Ankylosing Spondylitis. It's a very rare and debilitating form of arthritis which fuses her spine together, and she is unable to bend her neck and turn her head. She provided daycare for a multitude of families for over 30 years. She is incredibly giving, even to those she doesn't know.

On November 21st, 2025, my mom (Shari Rhoda) was out and about delivering a Thanksgiving meal to a family in need. On the way to meet them, she exited the parking lot of a local business, and as she did, she was struck by another vehicle on the front driver's side. My son, TJ, knew she was out and about, and he called her because she was taking far longer than he expected. When he called, a medic answered her phone and told him what had happened. He jumped out of his chair, got in his car, and drove to the scene of the accident. It was less than 2 minutes from our house. I received a call from him shortly after, and we began calling family, and many of us went to Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids.

To our dismay, my mom had a broken neck. Her C3 was broken clean through. While her spinal cord was not severed, it was definitely damaged. Potentially, forever. She is currently a quadriplegic and unable to move anything beneath her neck. We have been told several times it is likely permanent, but miracles happen. She received a tracheostomy (a hole in her throat) and has been on a ventilator ever since.

She has made some strides and improvements, but we are told that the full extent of her recovery or lack of recovery will not be known for months, or probably years.

We are praying for a miracle that her situation changes, but we are also well aware of the mountain she will need to climb. That we as a family will need to help her climb. They say it takes a village, and while we have a village, we are already finding out the weight of trying to care for her financially, mentally, and emotionally.

While we as a family can manage the mental and emotional weight, the financial one is something that is and will be much harder to bear. My mom requires care around the clock. While there are nurses and techs that do a great job to help, they can't be with her as much as she needs. There are dozens of patients on her floor and only a handful of medical professionals. What we take for granted, the ability to scratch your nose, put your hair behind your ear, remove the crusties from your eyes, itch your eyes, and more are all insurmountable for her to do herself, all things she needs in between care from hospital staff. She can't even call for help if she needs it. It can be 15 minutes or it can be an hour before hospital staff come to her room.

This care, comfort care, falls onto us to provide. This is a massive undertaking. Not only due to the attention we need to pay to her, but financially. We are all taking time away from our jobs and side hustles, not to mention the gas costs traveling between our respective homes and the hospitals. This also doesn't account for her bills that need to be paid. There are more and more things to pay for that we just don't expect and we are sure there will be more unexpected bills to come.

This is why we are asking for help, something our family has never done. We've always been on the giving end, which makes it all the more difficult for us to ask for help.