Help For Survival Of My Father & 2 Little Sisters
Hello, my name is Tinisha Clark. In the cover photo you will find my youngest sisters Emily and Alisijah. The man in the video and picture with my younger self is my father Austin McNeal. I chose to show that photo, because it is a literal snapshot of the last time I seen my father in person a bit over 23 years ago. In that picture I am pregnant with the first of my father’s 3 grandchildren that he has never seen in person. The back story to how all of this transpired, is unique and tremendous at the very least. It’s a story that is unbelievable in a “WOW” kind of way to those who have inquired. But for the purposes of this campaign I will stick to the current facts at hand.
As you can see in the video, he is very sick. In the video, he gives an account of all the issues, he is currently facing. He has no income, and greatly needs help.
This is a BIG job, one that no one person that I am close to can handle. For now, we are just looking to be able to collect enough money to help with basic living expenses, and something to cut down some of the medical bills, to ensure that they will continue to treat him. He is still in the hospital so we have no idea, where the cost will land, it is currently costing around 400 Euro’s a day, outside of medicine and treatments, for him to be there, and he has been there for 15 days.
As stated earlier, I have been separated from my father physically for over 23 years, and was out of contact with him for about 20 years until the beginning of March of this year, of 2020. Oddly enough the first email came from him just about a week before the quarantine was fully announced. I had finally been given an old email that he used to communicate with his siblings through, years prior. And I sent my first email to him a bit over a year ago. So as you could imagine, it was quite the surprise that I finally heard from him, because his siblings’ last emails sent had gone unanswered.
In some ways, he was the same cheerful,oddly silly father that I had often told my children about. And I was happy to seethat he was still the funny man, I knew they could fall in love with as a grandfather. He proved it by greeting his grandchildren with a silly video, along with my two baby sisters, that I have never seen in person before. But there were definitely some things that had changed.
I could see in the video that he didn’t move as smoothly as I had remembered. And yes he was older, but he was only age 62. In future conversations I would come to learn that he was extremely visually impaired, and suffering from swelling in the legs, causing his walking to be limited. And no doctor had seen him at all in a few years. Why you ask? Well, this is where our story gets interesting.
Through a series of not so great decisions, my dad ended up in Latvia, and has been there for around 20 years. He is not a citizen, therefore does not qualify for their socialized medicine program, and will need to pay out of pocket for any medical expense generated.
So unable to do anything else, he was diligently getting up, at 4:30am morning after morning, trying to perfect a Forex trading system to bring in the money his young family needed, and the families from his life before deserved. But over the course of the past 6 months that I have been in contact with him, the window of functioning health began to close in on him.
My father and sisters have been living in a 3 bedroom flat, with the girls’ mother and their grandparents. Their mother has been out of work since January, and the quarantine has not helped her search for new employment. The only working person in the household is the grandfather, who has taken on way more than he can or should be responsible for.
Given the limitations of my father, that had caused him to be home most of the time, he had become the primary caregiver for my little sisters. But that recently came to a halt when his health completely failed him. Around two weeks ago, everything took a turn for the worse, he couldn’t eat, couldn’t keep anything down, his legs began to feel like lead, and finally he could no longer feel his fingers and feet. So the call was finally made to call an ambulance.
The verdict was unlike anything I had ever heard of before, so many things going wrong within just one person. He was diagnosed with SEPSIS, diabetes, an enlarged prostate which caused a urinary tract infection, to which all of the above caused his kidneys to have issues- leading to him needing dialysis. All of this while already dealing with both macular degeneration and circulation issues, due to prolonged neglect of the diabetes.
He accepts that he has been the cause of his own undoing, but what that can’t account for is the loss that his youngest daughters, at ages 11 and 14, who still need him will feel if he doesn’t survive this. Or the loss to his older children he’s been separated from, and the grandchildren he has never seen in person.
There are some who know me as a massage therapist, owner/operator of a small massage therapy business. To help better take care of my family, it was necessary for me to give up my office last October and work on call from there. But once quarantine hit, I lost my regular income immediately, and our family situation greatly changed. I am now able to do some work, but not nearly enough to put a dent into the help that my father needs.
To those who are aware of who my eldest son is, he will most definitely help as much as he can. But he is still building his career, he is 23 and already majorly helping to take care of our family due to my loss of income. So we need help. And I am asking for it.
We lost my father 20 years ago, and I am absolutely not ready to lose him again after just reconnecting,
only 6 months ago. And I don’t want my two younger sisters lost to us being stuck in another country. So I am asking for help to assist him in being able to receive the medical treatment he needs to get better, and be there for my little sisters.
I encourage them on a daily basis, as we have become close through Instagram messaging, and Marco Polo videos. I make Storytime videos for them on Marco Polo, so that they can sleep better at night, because they are scared. This whole situation is affecting them in a major way.
I want my kids to be able to one day after the pandemic, be able to fly to Latvia and finally meet their grandfather in person, and give him a hug for the first time.
My kids have not had a grandfather that was ever consistently very active in their lives. My father was definitely a part of that problem initially, being missing, but once he reached out to us, no longer hiding in guilt, he has done his best to reach out and be the grandfather they’ve always wanted. The grandfather I have always wanted to see them have. He knows he has to work for those relationships now, but he is always asking about them, wanting to see them, diving into their interests. Whether they respond or not, he would get on Marco Polo everyday just to greet them, and hopefully see a video from them.
I don’t want them to miss out on what more they could have. Or miss out on the chance to heal what has been broken in our family. And last but not least, selfishly, I want my father to be able to be a full part of my life again and for all of my siblings to have a chance to be reunited with each other, together with him. So we need help. No gift is too small, we appreciate anything that can be given, because amongst all the medical bills, and obvious need for a change in living quarters, they need help with even the basics, such as food. So please help with whatever you can, and know that it is all greatly appreciated in advance.
And for those interested, I have decided to use my YouTube account to uploadany videos that give you more of a glimpse of who we are, and updates on our progress, until we get to a stable point. This way you can see exactly what you have so graciously supported. You can find my page on YouTube, simply by searching my name, Tinisha Clark. I thank you.
