For Sandra

My name is Bob Visnic, the owner of The Oriole Café in Berea, Ohio.  My staff and I are trying to help a beautiful young lady and her family who have faced and are continuing to face extremely difficult times.  It is our hope that with your generous donations that we all can make a very unfortunate situation just a little bit better.

Kaitlyn Sefcik was born on June 13, 2005.  When she was six years old she was diagnosed with a severe case of Crohn’s Disease.  Since then she has been in and out of the hospital too many times to count.  It has been six years since she was diagnosed and she has easily spent two of them in the Cleveland Clinic.  Presently she goes to the hospital once a month for IV Infusions of Remicade.  She is now 12 years old and will spend the rest of her life battling Crohn’s.

Sandra, Kaitlyn’s mother, clearly has been coping with a lot of stress.  Being a single parent with a full time job is hard enough.  Imagine this role involving a very sick child.  To make matter’s worse Sandra’s mother became wheelchair bound due to a stroke in 2004.  Sandra was now spreading herself paper thin between her job, the Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital and pitching in to help her family take care of their disabled mother.  “Me time” has had no meaning for her.

Normally a child faces death for the first time with the loss of a pet, normally a goldfish.  Kaitlyn hasn’t been this fortunate. As a frequent flyer of the hospitals she naturally made friends with the other patients there, the other very ill children.   Kaitlyn particularly bonded with one beautiful soul who also went to the same school.  At the tender age of ten Kaitlyn had to say goodbye to her dear friend when this angel lost her battle with Leukemia.

Some ten months ago Kaitlyn experienced her second brush, if you will, with the fate of all of us.  Her grandmother, the stroke victim, passed away.  I suspect this loss might have been a little easier than her first goodbye but I am certain that she was hoping to not have to attend another funeral for a while.  Heartbreakingly, it will be sooner rather than later.

Shortly after her mother died Sandra was diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer.  The cancer has spread through her body and is currently also wreaking havoc in her brain, shoulder, knees, hips and back.  The prognosis is, well, grim.  The average life expectancy is two to five years.

Though it’s difficult for me to share I want to let you know that this campaign is very personal for me.  I lost my wife to breast cancer 15 years ago.  I, unfortunately, know the difficulties that are facing them.  It’s not pretty.  My teenage stepdaughter had a particularly rough go at it.  Not surprisingly, all I can do now is think about what Kaitlyn will be experiencing.  I just want to do something to make this unimaginable situation a little bit better if I can.

I am setting a goal for this GoFundMe campaign at 10,000 dollars.  Once reached I want to write Sandra a check, sorry, for us to write Sandra a check for the amount raised and say, “This is yours, do with it what you think is best.  Pay off bills, pay forward on the rent/mortgage, stow it away as a college fund, whatever.  What I and the donors of the GoFundMe campaign want, however, is that you and Kaitlyn take this money and do something very special for yourselves before….you know….before.  Go to Disney Land.  Skydive.  See the Grand Canyon or Hawaii.  It’s your choice but we suggest you use it create an everlasting joyous memory.  It’s on us.” 

It should go without saying that I will certainly provide updates of their progress and, in particular, their use of your generous donations.  Let’s make this happen!

With the deepest of appreciation in advance,
Bob Visnic

P.S.  Any funds not used by Sandra will be donated to help fight breast cancer.