Celebrate Irene's Birthday & Support Her Recovery!

Hello friends!

A few of us have been brainstorming (pun intended) how we can all support Irene to keep up with life and work while simultaneously recovering from her recent brain surgery (if you are finding out about this for the first time, we're sorry for the blunt delivery, please see details below and know she is doing well and is on the road to a full recovery).

We all know Irene. She is a force of nature in the best way, with 100 ideas and projects in play, at all times. She has an unwavering drive and a fierce sense of independence. This comes with a stubbornness to not ask for help.

So, WE are throwing her a GoFundMe Birthday Party! Yay!

The unexpected brain surgery has come with equally unexpected (and enormous) out-of-pocket medical expenses, plus doctor's orders to pause work for the entire month of August. She's certainly still healing and trying to get back in the swing of things. However, we want to help her stay on track and carry on, without carrying all the weight of this health setback.

Irene was slated to expand her store this fall, but pushed it back to later this spring to allow for more recovery time. Our goal is to throw this virtual party and shower her with GoFundMe-shaped birthday gifts. We want to help her catch up financially while she continues to recover.

Who doesn't love a virtual birthday party where all of your friends all over the globe can join?!

Thank you so much for celebrating Irene with us!

Happy Birthday, Irene!

Sorry not sorry, you can't stop us from throwing a party. ;)

WE LOVE YOU!!

Love & all the birthday wishes from lots and lots of friends and family conspiring on your behalf.

xoxo

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WHAT HAPPENED?!

In case you are hearing about this for the first time, we took details from posts Irene had shared on Facebook, to recap what she's been going through and continues to heal from:

At the end of July Irene suffered from a traumatic brain injury in Milwaukee, which caused bleeding on her brain, and resulted in an emergency craniotomy. She was released from the hospital on Aug 5th and flew back to Philly where she stayed with her Dad for a while before returning to her home in NJ.

Since then, Irene has been focused on recovering. She has been sleeping a lot and taking it easy while also easing back into the event world, as her health allows. She's back at the store as much as possible, she's slowly looking at screens again and she is working towards getting back to her old self.

She is yet to drive, but she'll cross that hurdle soon.

Irene is very aware (as we all are!) how fortunate she is considering how badly things could have gone. She is very grateful to be doing as well as she is physically, as well as cognitively.

And, as she put it perfectly, "I don't do slow! So this has been challenging!"

That's the story.

Thanks so much in advance for joining this virtual party to celebrate and support Irene.