Hello Friends and Family.

I am writing to share a GO FUND ME I have organized for one of my closest friends, Laura (Circe) Petrillo. In May she had a very serious infection manifesting as intense back pain, loss of mobility, skyrocketing blood pressure and a sudden looseness of (most!) of her teeth.

She stabilized after aggressive antibiotic treatment, but now urgently needs to have dental surgery and reconstruction — the removal of 19 teeth, bone grafts, implants, bridgework.

The total expected cost of the work is a staggering 43K of which Medicaid will cover only 3k (sedation and extraction).

Laura doesn’t qualify for bank loans but with a combination of credit card, a loan from a dear friend, and an emergency contribution from her children, she has secured enough money for the surgeries; but not for the time she'll need to take off to recover. And all this leaves her with a debt equal to her net income last year.

This 44K fundraising campaign is to raise funds to help with 2-3 weeks of missed work due to her illness in May and recovery from surgery (4K) and then to relieve her of as much of the credit card and emergency loan debt as we can (40K).

About Laura: Born in Detroit she came to the Lower East Side in the mid 1980’s.

When you walk down the street with Laura, you will stop every 10 feet because she loves and is loved by so many people in her community. As a teenager, she worked in local daycares and babysat, so some of these people are children from those days, now grown. And their parents. Sometimes even their grandparents! Or maybe it's folks she met holding years of regular open hours in a community garden. Or wayback friends from her years in the squats, or connections from her children's (many) school and afterschool activities... or, maybe it's somebody who approached her one day as a stranger having a rough moment, and for reasons neither quite understood, shared that with her – and then became a stranger no more.

Laura's a single Mom. Over the decades has birthed and raised five beautiful children, and co-parented two more. She is a wonderful, dedicated therapist. She's offered affordable counseling on a sliding scale for over 20 years.

She lives a richly spiritual, kind and full life, focused on love, healing and community. She is also an incredibly generous person who helps a lot of other people in myriad ways.

If you are able at this time, to support this medical turning point for my dear friend, please know that any amount is helpful - whether it is $5, $50, or $5,000. Sharing this story is also a great way to help out.

As our U.S. healthcare system becomes yet more destabilized, we see our friends and neighbors caring for each other the best we can. For all the forms this care takes, Laura and I are grateful. If you are not able to help financially or are focusing funds and energy toward other works, thank you for reading this and know that sending energy, thoughts, prayers are JUST as much appreciated.

The campaign will run 4 weeks, and throughout we will share a rotation of words and pictures from her friends and family.

From Cam:

In the mid-1980s, when she was still a teenager, Laura, aka Circe, saved my sanity and set me on a healthier path. I was in my early twenties. We lived together in a squat on East Seventh Street for eighteen life-changing months. Our friendship was a thing of such depth and magic and meaning, it made me trust in the world. I owe much of my subsequent happiness to the turning point of meeting her. 

Some years later, I was present (along with twelve others!) at the birth of her first child. She has raised seven of the most genius children I've ever known, and still has the gift of making her bottomless empathy absolutely hilarious. She works as a therapist and is a true healer of minds and spirits. 

As the saying goes, Laura would give you the shirt off her back. People like that don't end up with a lot of money, but I'm confident that there's more than enough love out there to cover this! Also -- she's a believer in the power of prayer, and so sending her your thoughts is as welcome and comforting and helpful as any dollars and cents. Thank you for reading!

Images:

1. Laura (Circe) being smooched by yours truly, we are around 17. Probably this was taken at Coney Island with sand in our toes and hair and everywhere else. Later that day it’s likely she made me golden lentil soup. We have been woven unconditionally into each other's lives ever since.

2.Laura post surgery (“Circe Rising”)

3. Laura and her eldest, (see Cam’s description of her birth) sharing a laugh in the dappled light of our beloved Sauer Park in the EV back in the day. (“Laugh Shared”) Laura has a great laugh and it is contagious.

4. “Sauer Park Kids” 4 hers. 2 mine. Mid 2000’s?

5. “Next Generation” From 2024… Laura with (4) of her grown kids, their partners and a grand-daughter. And Navi (their dog).

With love, Hilary (and Team Laura/Circe)