Help our Mom recover!

In August of this year, our mother, 66, collapsed in her Houston, TX home due to congestive heart failure. The collapse was brought on by heat exhaustion, dehydration, and malnourishment. She was not found immediately and, as she lay on the ground struggling to breathe and move, her body started to break down. Her kidneys, liver, and heart began to shut down and by the time an ambulance got her to the hospital, she had begun aspirating on her own stomach fluids, which had unfortunately eaten away at her esophagus while she was unconscious. She was intubated and given uncertain chances, having 3 ulcers, heart, kidney, liver failure, and a severely damaged esophagus.


Our mother then spent almost 2 weeks with a breathing tube and then another 2 out of ICU before she was able to talk again. After 3 weeks in Memorial Hermann, she was transferred to a skilled nursing facility where she spent another 2 weeks learning to eat and regain some of her bodily functions. She was then transferred to a final facility where she learned to use a wheelchair and took her first steps using a walker. 
It was apparent by this time that she should retire or at least take the time she needed to make a full recovery. We reached out to her employer, a law firm in Houston that she worked faithfully at for the past 20 years, we learned that not only was there no retirement plan in place but they had no intention of offering a severance to help her in this difficult time. My younger brother received a handwritten offer the day he went to collect her things, only offering her vacation pay and one working day a year for 20 years service.
Despite her loyalty, multiple titles and time invested, she would have nothing to show for it and almost nothing to fall back on. As you can imagine, we were unwilling to show this handwritten insult to our mother while she was still in a hospital bed and seeing as the company she had worked so tirelessly for was not willing to help we decided with our mother to sell her house.

She received under $10,000 after the mortgage was paid off and we were able to recover some of her moving expenses from her former employer. She has used the majority of that to cover medical expenses and to be relocated to Maryland with her second born son, Micah, a natural caretaker and also a full-time student and massage therapist. She lives with Micah full time and requires home nursing,  occupational and physical therapy, she is learning to walk again and working to regain her muscle strength and mental stability. Our mom needs more time to recover and with her monthly expenses, healthcare not covered by Medicaid and past bills, the situation is dire. 
Our Mother, Sherrie Dessa Gard, is a single mother of five boys who has devoted her life to making sure we always had clothes on our back, food to eat, and a roof over our head. I guess everyone takes for granted the immense sacrifices that their parents make for them, and no matter how much you grow, the shock of being faced with their illness and mortality is nearly impossible to bear unshaken. After all, our parents are superheroes, and that goes triple for our mom - for reference, she once was hit by a car when we were boys and didn’t miss work or the night school she was attending. Our Mom spreads joy, love, and hope where ever she goes. She smiles and bears her light even when she is hurting and facing personal darkness. Our mom always tells us, “Love learning, kindness! Seize the day!” for years we rolled our eyes but as adults, we understand those are important values and beliefs to our mother and now all of us. She is truly a beautiful human and deserves another chance at life. 

The road to a full recovery, as it turns out, is much longer and is much more expensive than any of us could have planned for.  Left sorting the pieces out amongst ourselves on just how to make sure she has proper care on her journey to wellness, it has been gut-wrenching to learn that we are coming up short - especially after all she has done for us. She has already sold her home and used what was left to pay a fraction of her expenses and to make the move to Maryland where she can be closely nurtured by the most loving of us, Micah. The unfair reality is that, after recovering, she will be forced to return to work part-time, we only require enough to get her back to strength (6 months)  It could be anyone’s mom or dad but It’s up to us, and hopefully, a community of empathetic humans around us to help sort things out when the system fails.