Andy's Medical Fund: A Friend in Need

This is the first time I've ever created a GoFundMe for someone. I am raising funds for a friend to help with medical bills from spinal cord vertebrae fusion surgery and lost work wages during his recovery. I first met Andy more than 10 years ago when I hired him for his handyman services to make some repairs on a property. I was impressed with his work ethic, the quality of his work, and professionalism, so he became my go-to handyman for my rentals. After hiring him several times, we became friends over time, and I grew to trust him enough to partner together to flip homes. This man has the work ethic of a draft horse. He works hard five days a week, sometimes six. He doesn't allow anything to slow him down. I've found him on job sites sick as a dog, sawing and hammering, doing hard manual labor, and told him, "Dude, why are you at work like this? Go home and get some rest." To put it into context how hard this man works, he went to the ER last week for neck pain that kept him up all night. After reviewing the MRI, the stunned doctor said, "You're still working? Doing construction no less? I'm amazed you could even walk in here. You have three completely crushed vertebrae in your neck. I'm admitting you to the hospital. You need immediate surgery."

He had the surgery Friday and it went well. His doctor ordered him to not lift anything heavier than a milk carton for six weeks which, as you can imagine, will make it virtually impossible for someone who is essentially in construction to earn any income except for the smallest of jobs. Knowing Andy, I fully expect him to not listen to his doctor and be back and work sooner than that because he is such hard worker. But he will be out of work for at least a month minimum.

Part of the reason he works hard is that he is self-employed working his own handyman business and doesn't take anything from anyone. But the downside of being self-employed is not having great employee benefits like employer-contributed healthcare and short-term disability insurance. He doesn't have access to an employee benefit fund that helps employees of a specific company or a co-worker assistance fund like a pilot fund where a large workgroup chips in to help co-workers in tough times. I was reflecting on how blessed I am to have those kinds of benefits through my work and thinking how difficult it would be to suddenly lose my income AND get hit with massive medical bills simultaneously.

While reflecting on how blessed I am to have access to Help Funds that he doesn't have access to, I decided to organize this on his behalf. This is a man who would give you the shirt off his back but will never take anything from anyone. In fact, if he sees this, I suspect he would ask me to take it down because he takes pride (in a good way) in being self-sufficient. But I firmly believe he deserves some help. This is not an injury from reckless activity like riding motorcycles or bungee jumping. This is a degenerative condition that could just as easily happen to you or me. So if you wish to join me in sowing some good karma in helping out a good man in a time of need, maybe karma will pay it forward back to you one day if you find yourself in a similar circumstance.

Never having organized a GoFundMe, and not knowing how much this may or may not raise, on the off chance this raises more than Andy's actual medical bills and lost wages, I plan to donate any excess to the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida in Orlando since I have volunteered there frequently and have personally seen they use every dollar wisely to help the community.