Help a family in need : a mother and her son

We decided to create a Gofundme for our friends, Christine and Kenza De Chiara, a mother and son experiencing very challenging times.

Christine has suffered cardiomyopathy with several open heart surgeries for 18 years, has used a pace maker and has taken many medications since then. These past 10 days, Christine has been in the ICU of Brigham Women’s Hospital on life support and awaiting a heart transplant until this morning, the 13th of September 2023. They found a matching heart, and she is now in the OR undergoing the transplant. We are praying for the donor’s family.

She has struggled between life and death, overwhelmed emotionally, mentally and physically by the situation:

- She can’t work

- She can’t pay any bills or the rent.

- She can’t support and help her youngest son.

- She has no family to help them, but thankfully she has solid, willing friends.

Christine is a single daughter, raised by a single, mentally challenged mother. She doesn’t know her father and never had one.

She is a hard working, courageous, creative, and very generous woman who followed the father of her sons, an American musician, from France to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

In France, Christine only has one family member, her mentally-challenged elderly mother.

Soon after moving to the US, the family dynamic became toxic and impossible to be around, so Christine left him and struggled to make a life on her own providing for her three sons. While raising them she went back to school to become a massage therapist.

Christine was diagnosed with a leaking mitral valve and cardiomyopathy at the birth of her son Kenza. She had a defibrillator placed in her chest and had to wait six months after giving birth to have an open heart surgery to replace her mitral valve with a mechanical one. Soon after, she separated from the father of her children. While Christine’s health remained fragile, she managed to work and be a good mother as well as a very good friend.

The two oldest sons live on the Cape, on their own, and barely can make it financially. So they cannot help.

The youngest son, Kenza, an 18-year-old and a friend of my son, Raphael, lives with his mother. Until this September, when he started as a freshman at Emerson College in Boston, Kenza worked part time in a bakery while attending high school. He too is hard working and very creative and has a big heart.

Kenza was supposed to continue to work at the bakery on weekends to help to pay for college and all his expenses, but he couldn’t continue to pay for his car so lost it, now can’t go to the Cape to work and make money. He doesn’t know if he can continue to study at Emerson. He is trying hard to obtain financial aid. He was given some scholarship money but it wasn’t enough. Plus, to keep his scholarship he has to maintain his grade level and considering how depressed he feels and how overwhelmed he feels about the idea of loosing his mother and not being able to continue to attend college, it is difficult to expect him to achieve the grades he needs to maintain the financial support.

Two years ago, Christine’s health started to deteriorate.

One day, taking care of a client as a massage therapist, Christine passed away and her pace maker save her life. Since this terrible and scary incident, Christine could no longer practice as a massage therapist and could not work at all for a year, and could only take care of her home with great difficulty. She managed to work part time doing administrative work at Cape Cod Career Center and had to go back to school to become a medical assistant to increase her monthly revenue.

School work and having serious health problems and family worries helped deteriorate her cardio vascular system and her heart functioning even more. Life was just too stressful.

This past June, Christine could barely function and had to stop working until she was admitted at Brigham Women’s Hospital and was placed on life support while being prepared to become a priority candidate for a heart transplant.

Christine received the transplant today September 13th, 2023.

With no revenue for a year followed by having only a minimal part time revenue, Christine had to use all her savings to pay for her rent and bills.

She is now in debt and Kenza is short of $5,400 for this year of college.

He also needs a used car. However, he just applied to a job in Boston and he is waiting for an answer.

If you can and want to help them, please make a donation.

On behaf of both of them, I thank you very much in advance.

Due to time constraints, I won’t be able to answer your individual questions but I will periodically update all of you.

Kind regards and much love to all.

Cecile