Hi, I'm Adrienne, a former coworker and decades-long friend of Bridgette Lacy. With my friends Joyce and Sheon, I'm fundraising for her.

 

Recently, Bridgette noticed something in her sightline that she couldn’t quite describe. That’s a big deal. Bridgette is a writer known for her sassy sensibility, witty observations, and meditations on the joy of food in communion, as displayed in her acclaimed book “Sunday Dinner,” which featured recipes and memories of meals shared in her grandparents’ home. Description is her thing.

 

It wasn’t a floater in her left eye. It was like a grid, a haze over everything she looked at, sometimes disorienting her. She shared the issue with us, her friend group. Some 15 years earlier, Bridgette had a brain tumor. Although she’d successfully recovered from it, we were concerned. We pushed her to her doctor and pushed him to push for a quick MRI.

 

The MRI revealed a series of mini-strokes.

 

 

Bridgette’s now in rehab at Rex, exceeding the expectations of the physical and occupational therapists, singing along to Bruno Mars in his Silk Sonic mode and Gladys Knight on that Midnight Train to Georgia, and raising a little hell when the rehab kitchen puts gravy on her biscuit. We’re happy (most of the time) that we’ve got our Bridgette back.

 

But she’s got bills.

 

For about 15 years, Bridgette was an award-winning features reporter for the News & Observer. Now, as a freelancer, she supports herself with each assignment, with each contract. Bridgette has maintained health coverage from her time working for the state, yet that coverage is limited. And hospital bills and rehabilitation were not in her budget. She’ll need some at-home support while she works to get back to what the doctors call her “prior level of function.”  We will use the money to cover her bills from the hospital and rehabilitation. And the funds will help as she transitions back home and needs both home care and therapy. 

 

Bridgette is determined to get there, get back into her home, and return to her life. In that way, we believe her stubbornness will work in her favor. But we also know that in a country without universal healthcare, medical bills can be an insurmountable setback. The bills haven’t arrived yet, but they will.

 

That’s something anybody can see.