Giving Back To Phyllis

ORGANIZED BY FAMILY & FRIENDS OF PHYLLIS OTT.



November 15th in Myrtle Beach was unseasonably cold, freezing actually.      Phyllis, now 93 years old, shivered from the cold in her house and suddenly realized that the space heater she had been using to attempt to warm the room had gone cold along with everything else.   Apparently her electricity had gone out.  Once upon a time she had been strong and quick, but this night she gathered her now frail body and inched carefully toward the kitchen to try to find a candle.   In the darkness, her poor vision making things worse, she suddenly stumbled and fell.

Injured and still having no light with which to see, she carefully made her way toward the front door where she managed to go outside and flag down a passing car to ask for help.   She was taken to the hospital.

Many of you know Phyllis well, while others of you may only know of her, but even now, with her 94th birthday coming up in April,  she is still adamant about staying in the house that she  built with her husband so many years ago, the house where she has served seekers and strangers, guests and friends, tea from India and cookies from Wal-Mart or The Dollar Tree, treating everyone like family as they sat chatting around her kitchen table.  

Phyllis loves her old home on the Center.  It is the house that she and her husband Lyn built when they moved to the Center in 1966 with 4 young children;  the house where you were welcomed to sit around the table to eat, talk, drink tea and watch the many, beautiful indigenous birds through her kitchen's sliding doors.
And though her life on the Center has always been one of very modest means, Phyllis’ stories were full of riches.  She spoke of her journeys to India, her deep longing for the betterment of mankind from the point of view of her Harvard educated mind, and she always shared her hopeful visions through her masterful paintings.     

Phyllis and Lyn knew that building their home on the Center was a sacrificial gift when they used virtually all that they had to build a house that upon their deaths, would no longer belong to them, but would forever become a part of their beloved Meher Spiritual Center.  You see, their home and property were deeded as a life estate.   


Where do we go from here?

Now, two months later, after two weeks in the hospital and a month in recovery at a local nursing home, our mother, Phyllis, has returned to her old house on the Center.

Both Mimi, with whom she recently spent a month in Greenville, SC, and Betsy, who lives in Columbus, OH, have invited our mother to live with them (us).  But so far she has insisted on staying in her house on the Center.   Our sister Leslie has helped out a lot, but had to move last year and is now about forty-five minutes away.   Due to retinitis pigments that she and her sons inherited from her father Lyn, she cannot commute on a regular basis, making it very difficult for her to help.  Chris, our brother, has also made an effort to help.   Even so, and even now with her small, frail body, she insists that she will live out her life fulfilling the calling of her master, the very one who opened the way for our family to live in this special place.


Trying to find a way to make this happen.

When she was ready to leave the hospital, we absolutely knew that returning to her home would require regular skilled assistance and daily care that would have to be administered and coordinated professionally.   Though she has lost most of her  hearing and much of her sight, Phyllis, still sharp in many ways, herself had the idea to ask her old friend, Pat Burrell, who many of you know is a licensed RN who provides exactly this service (of coordinating consistent, skilled caregiving) to organize this service for her.

Currently, we are in the process of having a complete medical analysis done in order to know exactly what is needed, however we do know that at minimum, daily skilled care is required to make sure medications are taken correctly, all transportation to and from medical appointments must be provided and regular assistance is needed for monitoring nutrition and other basic health care necessities essential for her to live safely in her home.   Depending on the number of hours specified for care each day, the cost for at home skilled care, can run in the many thousands of dollars each month, clearly not sustainable given Phyllis’ very limited resources.   We are also concerned about her broken  HVAC unit.   Because she was told it would require at least seven thousand dollars to repair it, Phyllis has been heating her house in winter with a wood stove and space heaters.  But truly the only good solution to her heating problem would be to either fix or replace her old HVAC system. 

After a lifetime of dedication to Baba and years of service to the center and its many guests, Phyllis lives very frugally and very carefully. She is also proud and has never asked for charity, even living without HVAC rather than asking for help.  Because of her limited sight and hearing, she no longer drives and has to ask someone to take her each week to shop at her favorite store, the local Dollar Tree where she painstakingly shops for her groceries and toiletries.   She moves carefully, making sure that she can see where she steps.   But even now, late in her life, she very much wants to remain in her home as she is certain that her life’s calling is one of the reasons Baba himself directed her presence on the center. 


Seeking wisdom....

Struggling with all of the many, seemingly impossible obstacles, and because her life estate home is on the Center, we decided to seek  counsel from the board to ask for guidance.  It was then that  Buz Connor, Executive Director of the Center, suggested we reach out to the Phyllis’ friends by setting up a "Go Fund Me" page.    

Taking Buz's advice, we are hoping to raise enough money to keep Phyllis in her beloved home, where she desperately wishes to remain, for as long as possible.

This means that we hope to raise enough support to cover the cost of as much care as is needed to make her last years in her home, comfortable, safe and viable.  With your help, she may once again be able to have you over for Indian tea and cookies from Wal-Mart or maybe The Dollar Tree… and of course, wonderful stories of her journeys, paintings and devotion to her master.

Any funds received will be applied directly to help cover the cost of Phyllis' professional care, and if possible, to also help with the repair or replacement of her broken HVAC unit.

Anyway, dear friends...   if you are comfortably able to help, in any amount, Phyllis' friends and family thank you.