Ginny Schoenwetter’s Assisted Living Costs

As a mom, I cannot imagine the utter heartbreak Ginny Schoenwetter has had to endure over the past dozen years — losing all three of her adult children due to an awful genetic disease — and then the sudden loss of her husband who was the person holding the pieces of their shattered family together. Imagine burying all of your children after they each suffered painfully for years, and then losing your mother and husband. It is really too much to bear.

After Debbie, Jeff and Karen passed away, Abbie was taking care of Ginny in Homestead — until he died suddenly of a heart attack in December 2021.

Close friends and family scrambled and made some heroic outreach … assembling a previous GoFundMe to help Ginny pay for Abbie’s funeral … and to move her as she was being evicted on top of everything else. After $30k was raised, unfortunately Ginny couldn’t receive the funds due to not having a valid license/ID or bank account (due to failing health and depression, she rarely left the house if not for Abbie); the donations were returned to the many generous donors.

Through an act of compassion and generosity from Pat Samuelson, a cousin in California, Ginny was brought from Florida to California — where she lived for the past two years with Pat’s elderly mother. In recent weeks, Pat’s mom passed away; and Pat located an assisted living facility/home where Ginny (and her beloved dog, Winnie) could stay. They are there now and being cared for.

THIS IS WHERE WE HOPE YOU COME IN.

Pat made sure Ginny updated her identification/license and Ginny now has a bank account with Bank of America. However, with her monthly social security checks more than $1.000 short of what the new place costs, Ginny is in need of financial assistance once again.

Please consider making a donation — whatever you can would be much appreciated!

Photos sent from Pat show Ginny smiling recently … and for now, she has a HOME and people to care her. Hopefully this GoFundMe can make up for the deficit Ginny will see each month.

Rest assured the money will go directly toward Ginny’s monthly fees/rent at the care facility If you’d prefer, you can also send money via Zelle directly to Ginny’s account at BoA (under her legal name Maria Virginia Schoenwetter). Ginny’s email remains [email redacted] and her cell (for Zelle) is the same she has had for years (GoFundMe won’t allow # to go in text) ending in 9671.

Hope you can help! Below is text from the previous GoFundMe, plus info on the horrible disease MELAS that robbed this sweet and generous (in spirit and lifelong friendship) family of the many decades they should have all been together.

Alix Hayes

(Karen’s best friend)

Debbie, Jeff and Karen all lived for decades with — and ultimately died from — MELAS, (Mitochondrial Encephalopathy, Lactic Acidosis, and Stroke-like episodes), a rare and cruel syndrome that mostly affects the nervous system and muscles.

When tragedy strikes our family, friends or loved ones, we do our best to support and provide the nurturing needed ... and when tragedy strikes a family multiple times, we must rally together to help bring hope and light to their excessive hardships. We hope you find it in your hearts to help.

For those unaware, Karen was diagnosed with MELAS in 2008 and suffered multiple seizures and strokes, hearing and balance loss, and motor skill deterioration. Yet, if you were to visit with Karen in recent years, she would still make you laugh hysterically, call you by your nickname, rave about her most-recent hair coloring (as she was always wanting to look cute!), tell you how she was right about something and people were crazy (in the KK way) and recall some funny story that you hadn't thought about in years.

Karen was a graduate of Gulliver Prep and WashU (Washington University in St. Louis) and moved to New York City early on in her fashion design career. Finally finding her niche in handbag design, she had stints in Detroit (her KMart days) and Dallas (where she also lived with Jeff for a time). When she returned home to Miami she worked in fashion merchandising for a number of years until balance and motor problems became too much. This pint-sized firecracker could eat (!), and always loved being around her dogs and immediate family. Hopefully, you recall Karen's insane handbag and mask collection, her love of the beach and 'baking in the sun' in her tiny bikinis, her fashion magazines, her girlfriends and her unbreakable closeness with all of Jeff's best buddies. (Many of you may also have noticed her Facebook posts over the past year or so as she reconnected with childhood friends and kept tabs on their social and family happenings. It brought Karen such joy to see the world through others' eyes ... as she couldn't participate as much as she used to.)

Sadly, Karen's brother, Jeff, died only 12 months ago at the age of 41, also from MELAS complications, and older sister Debbie passed away a little more than a year before that. For all the Schoenwetter children, this disease stole from them the active lifestyle they craved and loved, and it simply isn't fair that they suffered so much.

In caring for the children for two decades, mother Ginny closed her businesses to assist in full time home health care for her children in various stages of the disease, and to also care for her mother, Norma (or as many of us know her as Granny), who also passed away last year. This began a downward spiral of financial, emotional and physical stress on the entire family.

As you'd imagine, covering the extraordinary costs of home health care and expenses not covered by disability and medical insurance has been extremely difficult, especially since they also came after all the kids' private school education and college costs. Expenses ran high with health care, loans and second mortgages were made, and the family has barely managed to cover all necessity expenses (not to mention the fact that Ginny is currently recovering from a Total Hip operation and rehab, and Abbie has medical issues and recent near-blindness which is making transportation near impossible).

And now, Ginny and Abbie have to plan and pay for the unconscionable: laying their third and last child to rest and attempting to resurrect some kind of normalcy, if ever possibly given their devastating losses. Through all the trials and duration of the siblings' failing health, Ginni volunteered over the years and remained active with UMDF (United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation). Abbie, as we all know, would do anything for you. Collectively, the Schoenwetters were like a 'second family' for all of us. It is absolutely urgent and imperative we act as a community of support to help Abbie and Ginny.

Please note: in 5/2020 after Karen’s death, Jeff’s amazing friends updated his GoFundMe campaign -- to include a renewed plea to help.

We are grateful and appreciative for your time reading this story. Thank you in advance for any and all donations made to this fund.

~Hope and Love for the Schoenwetter Family~

"Whenever there is a human in need, There is an opportunity for kindness and to make a difference."

To learn more about MELAS, research and how to support, please visit websites below.

https://www.umdf.org/

https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/melas-syndrome/