DON & PEGGY BALDWIN NEED YOUR HELP
Donation protected
Dear friends,
On February 17, 2019, a disturbing message came from Eve, our wonderful, 53-year-old single daughter, alerting us that she was in a serious crisis and desperately needed our help. After several weeks of equally frightening messages, and fearing for her life, Don drove the 550 miles to her home in Encinitas, CA. to intervene, making sure she stayed alive, and initiate emergency treatment. Eve, a self-employed massage therapist and personal yoga teacher, relies entirely on this work for her livelihood. However, due to a sudden and complete shutdown of her nervous system, which precipitated a severe depression, she was forced to stop all her work. With no income since February, it suddenly became necessary for us, beginning March 1st, to cover all of her monthly expenses and the entire cost of her medical treatments. As of June 1, this amounted to over $22,000. Emotionally and financially, we were totally unprepared for this, and the stress has, at times, felt overwhelming.
Thus our need to reach out to you, dear family and to help relieve us
from this sudden and enormous financial burden.
With your help, the financial stress will, to a large degree, be relieved - at least for now. Whatever amount you can give, large or small, will be gratefully received. If you are not in a position to give money, your prayers of healing for Eve, and for us, are a blessing. We will forever be thankful for your loving concern and care.
Eve is a profoundly sensitive healer, and those who come to her, feel her care, love, and compassion. We know, once on track again, her beautiful gifts will be available for improving the lives of many others. Below, Don has written about our experience. Also, you can read Eve's expression of gratitude and of her personal ordeal.
As a gift of appreciation, if you would enjoy having one of Eve’s beautiful DVD’s, “Yoga Short & Sweet,” go her web site, www.evebaldwin.com, click on, “Contact,” and, in the message box, enter your name and PO mailing address. She will gladly send you a free copy!
With deep gratitude,
~ Don & Peggy
A Request: Please do not forward our GFM page to Facebook or any other social media. Our page is intended for our family and friends, and also for others in your circle of acquaintances you feel might appreciate the opportunity to contribute. So, you are very welcome and encouraged to forward the link to them, but also with the request that they, too, not enter it on any social media platforms. Thank you!
SIGNS OF SERIOUS DEPRESSION
Eve’s February email read: “Dad, I’m really not doing well at all…I am terrified.”
Later, a second came to Peggy: “Mom, my anxiety is off the charts. Shaking, shaking, shaking - and not sleeping, even with with medication…..I’m in a very dark place and just not sure how to how to get out I’m really scared.” She ended with, “I love you both. ~ Eve”
We continually reassured her of our unwavering love and support, both spiritually and financially. Her symptoms increased alarmingly: extreme stress, weeks with no sleep, panic attacks, nighttime terror, depression, and a growing inability to take care of herself. Her life was seriously in danger. We urged her to assure us that she would not attempt to take her own life.
On March 28, an email to Peggy shook us to the core:“Mom, I am not doing well at all …. I am completely dismantled. I just know that I have fallen off a cliff and I am just hanging there. Thank you for the love, light, and financial support. You are an angel of light. And I love you both. ~ Eve"
The next day I was in the car headed to Encinitas to be with her.
INTERVENTION AND TREATMENT
The next three weeks were the most difficult and stressful of my life. Upon arrival, I had found, not our vibrant, energetic, spiritual healer, but a woman full of fear, terror, and a belief that her life was finished. My 24-7 care began: weeks of exhausting efforts searching for appropriate treatment; the unsuccessful effort to find a psychiatrist who could see her without waiting weeks for an appointment; three trips to the ER (with two overnights,); and countless calls to community mental health agencies, discovering that they could not see Eve because her earnings exceeded their mandated income ceiling.
Exhausted from the effort, and little progress in her recovery, I urged Eve to return with me to Nevada City, knowing that many excellent resources were available in our county. Once here, Eve was immediately able to begin working with a wonderful range of therapists, professional healers and spiritual guides, from both Eastern and Western traditions, and her healing process began!
EVE'S FINANCIAL PICTURE
Eve’s small emergency savings, if put toward her apartment rent and basic monthly living expenses, would be quickly used up, as of June 1, we had paid out $18,000.
Given her long absence from work, Eve will need sufficient time to rebuild her clientele base as she begins work again. With a caution that returning home and starting work too soon could cause a serious relapse, she will need to carefully monitor her energy, self-care, and work load. Therefore, we need to be prepared to cover her rent and basic living expenses for an additional three months, an added cost of $16,000. [Manager's note: as of today, February 7, 2020, it has been one year since Eve first notified us of her condition. She has not been able to work since then, and Peggy and I are her sole support for all of her expenses to date.]
Disappointingly, we discovered that Eve’s Blue Shield HMO group health plan cannot be accepted by medical practitioners unless they are in close proximity to her legal residence. Consequently, as of June 1, we have had to pay all of her medical costs, a total now exceeding $24,000. As her future psychotherapy and medical expenses accrue, we know our help will continue to be needed during the next six months; we anticipate a minimum cost of $3,000.
To cover all of these expenses, it will require us to pull from our retirement savings a total close to $40,000. [Since this writing, and disappointingly, little improvement for Eve, we've needed to raise our goal to $70,000]
OUR NEED FOR FINANCIAL HELP
My and Peggy's income is based entirely on my modest United Methodist minister’s pension and our Social Security benefits. Our commensurately modest accrued savings is held in long-term CD’s.
We have sought to carefully protect our family’s financial resources, so that, as we age, whatever is not needed for our personal care can be passed on equally to our two unmarried daughters. As you can fully understand, we would never withhold any financial support for Eve, regardless of how much it might cost. However, with each of us now at age 82, our concern grows more and more as our carefully attended-to savings dwindle.
GRATITUDE EXPRESSED
Eve shares this with you:
“I am most eternally grateful for any and all contributions on my behalf. I long to live a normal healthy life again. To dance and laugh and work again. To feel fully alive. I ca feel the healing has definitely begun and I still have a ways to go. I will need more treatments, which will most likely be ongoing through the end of the year. With your assistance, it will enable my full recovery, and also assure that my parents will still have funds left for their uncertain needs as they age. My heart is overflowing with gratitude. Bless you all for your compassion, prayers and love.”
She has expressed so well how we feel, too. Our heartfelt thanks for your ongoing concern and love.
Our deepest gratitude,
Don & Peggy
EVE’S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
In January of this year, I knew I was feeling more stressed than usual as I was considering a move back to Los Angeles where most of my clients are located. I had been struggling with insomnia over the course of a two-year period, which was a significant concern; I was trying many modalities to address this. I was still highly functional as a very busy massage therapist of 25 years and personal yoga instructor for 18 years.
Despite the sleep challenges, I continued to work exceptionally well and maintain a very happy social life. Then one day in early February, upon returning from a weekend of work in LA, something shifted. Literally overnight. I was suddenly filled with an out-of-control, non-specific anxiety. I then went for at least a week with no sleep at all.
I tried all of the relaxing mindfulness tools I had. Nothing worked. I reached out to people and other healers to the best of my ability. I went to my new MD and could barely fill out the paperwork. My nervous system had completely shut down. The amygdala part of my brain was stuck ON in fight or flight response. I was TERRIFIED, All. The. Time. The neocortex (frontal lobe) went completely offline and I could not function. I couldn't make the simplest of decisions.
The severe cognitive impairment was an absolute nightmare. It was like being thrust into total darkness, yet my eyes and senses still worked. I became disoriented, and even driving a car to the market or making myself a meal became MONUMENTAL. It felt like I was trapped in a glass bubble which separated me from reality and those around me. Panic attacks soon ensued, as I had no control over what was happening to me. One day I was functional and very happy with my life, excited about the changes I had been planning on the horizon. The next thing I knew, everything was taken from me. I suddenly had nothing. No ability to function. I was completely dismantled. I was devastated.
I had somehow 'fallen into a dark hole' and could not get out. I did know that these were signs of severe depression as I had been through this before many years ago. I remembered the past agony, and how long it took to heal then (when I had youth on my side), and how hard it was to get out. I never dreamed it would happen again. This round felt like I was slammed to the ground and twisted apart as if my soul was somehow thrust out and now was existing outside of my body. How would I live in the world? How would I support myself? How could I have anything if I didn't have myself and my mental faculties? The inconsolable fear and fierce insomnia continued even with medication.
Suddenly the woman who was known for 'lighting up a room' with her positive energy and a beloved healer to so many, was suddenly contemplating suicide. It seemed incomprehensible even to myself. I didn't even know how to communicate with others and could barely leave the house. Who was this person? Where did Eve go????
I was desperate and I needed help.
Eve and family photos below.
* * * * * *
On February 17, 2019, a disturbing message came from Eve, our wonderful, 53-year-old single daughter, alerting us that she was in a serious crisis and desperately needed our help. After several weeks of equally frightening messages, and fearing for her life, Don drove the 550 miles to her home in Encinitas, CA. to intervene, making sure she stayed alive, and initiate emergency treatment. Eve, a self-employed massage therapist and personal yoga teacher, relies entirely on this work for her livelihood. However, due to a sudden and complete shutdown of her nervous system, which precipitated a severe depression, she was forced to stop all her work. With no income since February, it suddenly became necessary for us, beginning March 1st, to cover all of her monthly expenses and the entire cost of her medical treatments. As of June 1, this amounted to over $22,000. Emotionally and financially, we were totally unprepared for this, and the stress has, at times, felt overwhelming.
Thus our need to reach out to you, dear family and to help relieve us
from this sudden and enormous financial burden.
With your help, the financial stress will, to a large degree, be relieved - at least for now. Whatever amount you can give, large or small, will be gratefully received. If you are not in a position to give money, your prayers of healing for Eve, and for us, are a blessing. We will forever be thankful for your loving concern and care.
Eve is a profoundly sensitive healer, and those who come to her, feel her care, love, and compassion. We know, once on track again, her beautiful gifts will be available for improving the lives of many others. Below, Don has written about our experience. Also, you can read Eve's expression of gratitude and of her personal ordeal.
As a gift of appreciation, if you would enjoy having one of Eve’s beautiful DVD’s, “Yoga Short & Sweet,” go her web site, www.evebaldwin.com, click on, “Contact,” and, in the message box, enter your name and PO mailing address. She will gladly send you a free copy!
With deep gratitude,
~ Don & Peggy
A Request: Please do not forward our GFM page to Facebook or any other social media. Our page is intended for our family and friends, and also for others in your circle of acquaintances you feel might appreciate the opportunity to contribute. So, you are very welcome and encouraged to forward the link to them, but also with the request that they, too, not enter it on any social media platforms. Thank you!
SIGNS OF SERIOUS DEPRESSION
Eve’s February email read: “Dad, I’m really not doing well at all…I am terrified.”
Later, a second came to Peggy: “Mom, my anxiety is off the charts. Shaking, shaking, shaking - and not sleeping, even with with medication…..I’m in a very dark place and just not sure how to how to get out I’m really scared.” She ended with, “I love you both. ~ Eve”
We continually reassured her of our unwavering love and support, both spiritually and financially. Her symptoms increased alarmingly: extreme stress, weeks with no sleep, panic attacks, nighttime terror, depression, and a growing inability to take care of herself. Her life was seriously in danger. We urged her to assure us that she would not attempt to take her own life.
On March 28, an email to Peggy shook us to the core:“Mom, I am not doing well at all …. I am completely dismantled. I just know that I have fallen off a cliff and I am just hanging there. Thank you for the love, light, and financial support. You are an angel of light. And I love you both. ~ Eve"
The next day I was in the car headed to Encinitas to be with her.
INTERVENTION AND TREATMENT
The next three weeks were the most difficult and stressful of my life. Upon arrival, I had found, not our vibrant, energetic, spiritual healer, but a woman full of fear, terror, and a belief that her life was finished. My 24-7 care began: weeks of exhausting efforts searching for appropriate treatment; the unsuccessful effort to find a psychiatrist who could see her without waiting weeks for an appointment; three trips to the ER (with two overnights,); and countless calls to community mental health agencies, discovering that they could not see Eve because her earnings exceeded their mandated income ceiling.
Exhausted from the effort, and little progress in her recovery, I urged Eve to return with me to Nevada City, knowing that many excellent resources were available in our county. Once here, Eve was immediately able to begin working with a wonderful range of therapists, professional healers and spiritual guides, from both Eastern and Western traditions, and her healing process began!
EVE'S FINANCIAL PICTURE
Eve’s small emergency savings, if put toward her apartment rent and basic monthly living expenses, would be quickly used up, as of June 1, we had paid out $18,000.
Given her long absence from work, Eve will need sufficient time to rebuild her clientele base as she begins work again. With a caution that returning home and starting work too soon could cause a serious relapse, she will need to carefully monitor her energy, self-care, and work load. Therefore, we need to be prepared to cover her rent and basic living expenses for an additional three months, an added cost of $16,000. [Manager's note: as of today, February 7, 2020, it has been one year since Eve first notified us of her condition. She has not been able to work since then, and Peggy and I are her sole support for all of her expenses to date.]
Disappointingly, we discovered that Eve’s Blue Shield HMO group health plan cannot be accepted by medical practitioners unless they are in close proximity to her legal residence. Consequently, as of June 1, we have had to pay all of her medical costs, a total now exceeding $24,000. As her future psychotherapy and medical expenses accrue, we know our help will continue to be needed during the next six months; we anticipate a minimum cost of $3,000.
To cover all of these expenses, it will require us to pull from our retirement savings a total close to $40,000. [Since this writing, and disappointingly, little improvement for Eve, we've needed to raise our goal to $70,000]
OUR NEED FOR FINANCIAL HELP
My and Peggy's income is based entirely on my modest United Methodist minister’s pension and our Social Security benefits. Our commensurately modest accrued savings is held in long-term CD’s.
We have sought to carefully protect our family’s financial resources, so that, as we age, whatever is not needed for our personal care can be passed on equally to our two unmarried daughters. As you can fully understand, we would never withhold any financial support for Eve, regardless of how much it might cost. However, with each of us now at age 82, our concern grows more and more as our carefully attended-to savings dwindle.
GRATITUDE EXPRESSED
Eve shares this with you:
“I am most eternally grateful for any and all contributions on my behalf. I long to live a normal healthy life again. To dance and laugh and work again. To feel fully alive. I ca feel the healing has definitely begun and I still have a ways to go. I will need more treatments, which will most likely be ongoing through the end of the year. With your assistance, it will enable my full recovery, and also assure that my parents will still have funds left for their uncertain needs as they age. My heart is overflowing with gratitude. Bless you all for your compassion, prayers and love.”
She has expressed so well how we feel, too. Our heartfelt thanks for your ongoing concern and love.
Our deepest gratitude,
Don & Peggy
EVE’S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
In January of this year, I knew I was feeling more stressed than usual as I was considering a move back to Los Angeles where most of my clients are located. I had been struggling with insomnia over the course of a two-year period, which was a significant concern; I was trying many modalities to address this. I was still highly functional as a very busy massage therapist of 25 years and personal yoga instructor for 18 years.
Despite the sleep challenges, I continued to work exceptionally well and maintain a very happy social life. Then one day in early February, upon returning from a weekend of work in LA, something shifted. Literally overnight. I was suddenly filled with an out-of-control, non-specific anxiety. I then went for at least a week with no sleep at all.
I tried all of the relaxing mindfulness tools I had. Nothing worked. I reached out to people and other healers to the best of my ability. I went to my new MD and could barely fill out the paperwork. My nervous system had completely shut down. The amygdala part of my brain was stuck ON in fight or flight response. I was TERRIFIED, All. The. Time. The neocortex (frontal lobe) went completely offline and I could not function. I couldn't make the simplest of decisions.
The severe cognitive impairment was an absolute nightmare. It was like being thrust into total darkness, yet my eyes and senses still worked. I became disoriented, and even driving a car to the market or making myself a meal became MONUMENTAL. It felt like I was trapped in a glass bubble which separated me from reality and those around me. Panic attacks soon ensued, as I had no control over what was happening to me. One day I was functional and very happy with my life, excited about the changes I had been planning on the horizon. The next thing I knew, everything was taken from me. I suddenly had nothing. No ability to function. I was completely dismantled. I was devastated.
I had somehow 'fallen into a dark hole' and could not get out. I did know that these were signs of severe depression as I had been through this before many years ago. I remembered the past agony, and how long it took to heal then (when I had youth on my side), and how hard it was to get out. I never dreamed it would happen again. This round felt like I was slammed to the ground and twisted apart as if my soul was somehow thrust out and now was existing outside of my body. How would I live in the world? How would I support myself? How could I have anything if I didn't have myself and my mental faculties? The inconsolable fear and fierce insomnia continued even with medication.
Suddenly the woman who was known for 'lighting up a room' with her positive energy and a beloved healer to so many, was suddenly contemplating suicide. It seemed incomprehensible even to myself. I didn't even know how to communicate with others and could barely leave the house. Who was this person? Where did Eve go????
I was desperate and I needed help.
Eve and family photos below.
* * * * * *
Organizer
Don Baldwin
Organizer
Nevada City, CA
