Art & Martha Recover From Car Accident

On Monday (13 March 2023), my brother Art and our mom Martha were in a horrifying car accident. Martha was driving Art from their home in Marshall to his daily volunteer work opportunity through the local Arc chapter in Battle Creek when her 2001 Ford Ranger hit a patch of ice, spun out, and rolled several times before landing on its side. We are grateful that they crawled through the broken windshield, were schlepped over to the hospital in an ambulance, underwent testing, and then walked away with no physical injuries beyond bruised and dirtied bodies. The truck did its job and protected them, but it is totaled. Thankfully, this fundraiser is not for funeral costs, but rather to help them purchase a used replacement vehicle and cover any bills that insurance won't. This vehicle will be integral to Art's accessibility, as he and Martha live in a rural area that is not served by public transit, and most of Art's activities do not include transportation.

Many of you are lucky to know Art, but for those of you who don't, he is a 26-year-old man with a big personality and bigger love for chocolate, popcorn, and movies; Art has Down syndrome and is also autistic. For well over a decade (aside from a short hiatus during the pandemic), Art has attended weekly equine therapy at the Cheff Therapeutic Riding Center and bowling games through Community Inclusive Recreation (CIR) in Battle Creek. CIR also offers Art and his peers opportunities like art classes and dances. Now that he has graduated from the local Adult Training Program, Art also volunteers in the community through the local Arc chapter on weekdays. Art and Martha also enjoy going to the movies, cycling, and hiking together—activities that require a vehicle to access.

Equine therapy has greatly improved Art's balance, core strength, and confidence throughout the years.

Art attends a dance through CIR.

Art waits his turn at a weekly bowling session.

Martha is the most resilient person I know, and a biopic of her life would be Oscar bait. After suffering several miscarriages, she had me and Art in her late 30s. Art's Down syndrome was a complete surprise at birth. She took it all in stride, working full-time coordinating a robust recycling program in Michigan's capital area, starting a non-profit for recycled and upcycled art supplies (decades before upcycling was cool), leading my girl scout troop, and maintaining our 180-acre family farm–all while navigating a deeply complicated patchwork family and raising (at the time unbeknownst to us) two children on very different parts of the autism spectrum. She retired as early as possible in 2012, at 55, to become Art's full-time caregiver. Because of this necessary sacrifice, she does not receive her full pension. At the end of 2012, the three of us fled domestic violence, which was financially devastating. Over the past decade, she has worked extraordinarily hard to make the most of her green thumb and our legally unprecedented and frankly unbelievable situation to create a beautiful home for herself, Art, and their many beloved animals, on the Kalamazoo River.

If they can work, disabled individuals like Art do not have to be paid federal minimum wage and cannot have countable resources worth more than $2,000 to receive SSI. The savings cap has not been raised since 1989. These policies are deeply dehumanizing, are rooted in the mass incarceration of disabled people, and are designed to keep disabled people in a cycle of poverty. Art's schedule also prevents Martha from returning to work, even part-time.

Infuriatingly, Martha has also had to spend the last few months fighting alongside her neighbors to protest the secretive development of the Michigan Megasite in the floodplain across the river from their homes. Their local and state officials have sold them out for billions of dollars to Ford to develop the environmentally devastating Blue Oval EV battery plant. Do you think these government officials and corporate executives will pay out the losses of their home values? Have these development meetings happened transparently with robust community input? Of course not.

Calhoun County is the only one of 83 Counties in the State of Michigan that does not have a State Park, yet the State has rushed to cut down old-growth hardwood trees that are important nesting and breeding habitat for the endangered Indiana bat. Damn those pesky bats that help maintain our mosquito populations, the wealthy need more corporate profits, and Big Gretch needs to ~~secure her legacy~~ so she can make a run for President and sell out regular folks nationwide!! (Gretchen Whitmer is a talented politician who does not deserve the violence she and her family have experienced, but this saga is such a stark reminder of the kind of ugly behavior it almost always takes to be a talented politician and the consequential resentment it builds amongst constituents.) And lest we forget: yes, this is the same area of the Kalamazoo River that suffered from the 2010 Enbridge Oil Spill.

I am organizing this fundraiser on Martha and Art's behalf because my mom is too proud to ask for community care support, even though she and Art more than deserve it. My husband Gus and I have been dealt our own series of financially devastating car emergencies over the past 5 years, and we feel extremely guilty that our bad car luck (and the state-sponsored wage theft that we have endured, but that's beside the point) is preventing us from being able to do more to support them directly.

The most immediate issue to resolve is finding them a replacement vehicle so Art can return to his routine, which grants him as much independence and self-determination as possible. Martha is hoping to purchase a used van because it will be the vehicle with the most utility to her and Art (specifically to transport Art's adult tricycle to local paved trails and haul mulch for her sprawling gardens). Our family has never had fancy or new vehicles, and that is not desired or expected to change, but I would like to raise enough money to get them something more reliable than a 20-year-old beater with 250k miles on it. I also do not want to burden her with a car payment and would like to raise enough for her to be able to pay all cash.

It is unclear what part of the emergency transport, hospital, and wreckage bills will be covered by car and health insurance. Art understands what emergency vehicles are for; he has been in minor car accidents before but had never needed to be transported in an ambulance. Apparently, he was rather bemused by the theatrics (we'll take it). At the hospital, he was skeptical of going into the CT machine but after watching Martha go first, he laid super still and they got clear images that indicated he was clear of head and neck injuries. It is early, but his emotional trauma also seems minimal. Martha is holding it together, but this was her second ambulance ride in an ice storm in 3 months (unfortunately, they do not give out frequent flyer rewards), and I'm sure she would appreciate having resources to cover these likely-enormous hospital bills and get the trauma mental health care she deserves.

We are also facing the potential reality of the Megasite's development and weighing our family's options. Economic momentum at this scale is hard to stop, so the prospect of them becoming environmental refugees is looming heavily. The longer they wait to make a decision, the more the property devalues, and the harder it will be financially for them to leave. Any exceeding generosity will be put toward those unfortunate exit costs and rebuilding a new life, again, elsewhere.

Thank you for your kindness and support of Martha and Art. You can also PayPal Martha directly (and bypass GoFundMe's 2.9% processing fee) or purchase art made by me, Zofia. All profits from my artwork will go directly to Martha and Art until they have a new car underneath them. In the coming days and weeks, Art's artwork (paintings and drawings made into cards) will also be available on my website.

Art was thrilled to have seen wild horses on Shackleford Banks, NC, when my family came out for my PhD defense in April 2022. He also saw wild sharks and dolphins on this trip.

Art, Gus, Yoshi, and I took a road trip up through Northern Michigan in 2021. We look forward to future uneventful-but-still-adventurous car rides together.

A happy camper with his hand pie. A vehicle gives Art so much accessibility to outdoor adventures!

Art is both a talented artist and cat whisperer. (And Rowena is a pillow diva.)

Art doing art. Painting and drawing are his favorite media.

Art on a trail that is close to the house but still only accessible by car.

Art also enjoys bringing his art supplies with him outside and on road trips.