Community member needs some help!

Hello everyone. My name is Tighe and I am trying to offer some support to a friend and fellow Ashlander. My friend Helene came into my life about 12 years ago when I got connected to her through my work. I became friends with Helene and have been one of a very small number of people that she relies on to help her out from time to time. Helene is disabled, lives alone on disability, spending what little she has on her two service animals. Helene has very little ability to stay connected to the outside world. She does not have internet, or cable, and relies on a land line and rabbit ears on her TV to get broadcast programming over the air.

 

One of the most important ties Helene has to the outside world is her car, which suffered a major breakdown a couple of weeks ago. I am hoping that you can join me raising money to cover the costs of the repair, which is estimated to be about $4,100

 

Here is a letter from Helene for your consideration. Thanks all.

 

Monday June 6th, 2022

Just less than two months shy of my 1987 Acura Integra LS 35th August manufactured birthdate-she became disabled, severely. My consistently reliable, beautiful Acura that I have had for 32 years protected and served me well these three decades as I worked full time, sometimes two jobs and volunteering internships to pay her off while earning multiple college degrees. Then a week after graduating, while about to exit a grocery store parking lot, a vehicle travelling over 45 miles per hour struck the right front quarter panel of my Acura.

I was told later, my Acura saved my life. And when the insurance company deemed her “totaled” because she was 10 years old I demanded she be repaired after speaking to the mechanic, who told me that my Acura was “solid and structurally safe, and only needs minor repairs….they don’t make cars like this anymore.”

I, however, due to that life changing accident with a severe closed brain trauma and all the complicated challenges that come with it, became permanently disabled. To this very day I am affected by that accident of 1997, in so many ways. Other than my Acura saving my life, the other blessings have been my medical alert/mobility assistance service dogs Brandy and Bisonte who have passed on. These two Bouvier de Flanders were instrumental in my rehabilitation therapy and got me through insurmountable pain. I am forever grateful for their service to me, and miss them dearly. I am now cared for by Bouviers Breezy who continues the medical alert/mobility assistance dog work along with her niece Misty, my diabetic alert dog. Being cared for by these two medically essential canines comes with great responsibility on my part to take them to their vet visits, pick up their cases of dog food, not to mention they accompany me for my medical visits, shopping needs and of course the special car rides with the windows down, every pup loves.

My Acura provides us the ability to get things done, especially in an unexpected emergency and with fire season here we want to be able to flee at a moment’s notice.

I am humbly asking for your help. Please help us pay for her repairs that Ashland Automotive is doing. Because of ongoing diagnostics, the final cost is unknown as of today 6/18/22. We are grateful to any and all help. If at all possible, after the repairs Ashland Automotive completes, if there are any funds that remain, our 35th birthday wish for my Acura is to have the AM/FM radio repaired for us to hear disaster evacuation notices. And maybe, just maybe, a pearl white paint job to stop the rust from decaying her body. You decide.

Thank you and joyful barks from Breezy and Misty, and even a meow from Sebastian too!

 

Gratefully yours and many blessings, Helene.