<div>Hello.
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<div>I never thought that our family would ever face a situation like this.
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<div>Honestly, it feels unrealistic even now in this moment of writing this. It hasn't been a month since the accident, but it feels like it's been forever, or like some pieces of moments where I question myself if this was really happening. 
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<div>I hear motorcycles go by outside the window, and I look out the window... it's a habit, to see if Joe is pulling into the driveway with his bike. But here we are.
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<div><strong>*A Little Bit About Joe...</strong>
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<div>My husband, Joseph Gardner, or Joe, is an active war zone combat veteran. He deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in his early 20s and lost good friends there. Then he was lastly deployed to South Korea, where he and I met and paired up for this life. He served 9 years. He and I have 2 girls, 10 and 7 years old.
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/106880497_1786309557421808_r.png" width="100%" />
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<div>Then he became a police officer and served the community for 8 years. He is still proud of his past careers, as he loves providing service and taking care of people. He truly loves his country and community.
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<div>Recently, he became a phlebotomist prior to the accident and was thriving. I told him, "After 17 years, you found your true calling!" And it was heartwarming that he finally found something peaceful yet productive, building a whole new career path.
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<div><strong>*What Happened...</strong>
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<div>On the morning of July 30, 2026, we were planning to take the girls to "First Day of School" shopping. He's a gym rat, that's what Joe calls himself, and he was asking if it was okay for him to go to the gym before the shopping trip. 
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<div>I looked at him with a pouty face and said, "Now?" I didn't want him to go, but I let him go because I knew he wanted to take every bit of advantage of riding his beloved Indian Challenger.
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<div>I never imagined, even in a dream, what would happen, and I try not to think about whether this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't let him go.
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<div>It was 2026 7/30 11:22am when I got the automatic emergency alert that Joe's Apple Watch detected a crash and emergency services had been called, with a GPS map attached. At first I was thinking maybe his bike hit a speed bump too hard on the way home. I decided to wait 15 minutes, since according to the GPS, that's where the accident occurred.
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<div> I waited for him and his shiny white Indian to show up with the speaker playing music. No bike, no Joe. I started getting scared, looked up the map and sure enough, the exact spot from the emergency alert was marked as some sort of traffic jam.
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<div>Then shortly after, I got a call from a gentleman who said Joe was in an accident, that he was with him and that Joe got hurt pretty badly. Then an EMT called me and let me talk to Joe briefly. Joe said he loves me and to tell the girls that Daddy loves them. I called his parents and headed to the hospital.
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<div>My husband saw and remembers most of it, as he didn’t lost consciousness, and was scared he was going to bleed out as he sat there, until a random stranger (bless him) showed up and put a tourniquet on him. His thigh bone and shin bone were broken, and his foot was... completely destroyed.
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<div>I saw his foot at the trauma bay. I'd never seen anything like that in person before. And a 205 lb strong weightlifter, lying there powerlessly and telling people that he doesn't care if that foot has to come off, as long as he has his wife and can see our girls grow up. 
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<div>I don't even remember how I held myself together while looking at him and listening to him. I didn't cry. Maybe some would say I'm cold, but all I could think was that I can't lose myself and cry while my husband is lying there, and he's probably scared a hundred times more than I am. 
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<div>All I could tell him was that he's okay, we will be okay, and that was also something I was saying to myself.
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<div>After 4+ hours of surgery, thankfully he came out alive and surprisingly didn't have any other major injuries, but the doctors weren't sure if the foot would be salvageable. And the pain he had to endure for the first 5 days was indescribable. We both hoped for the best but we were aware there was a high chance of amputation.
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<div>And that's what happened. My husband, who was in an active combat zone more than once and came back in one piece from every deployment, lost his leg just like that.
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<div><strong>*Moving Forward...</strong>
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<div>I try not to think about the what-ifs, would'ves, could'ves, whys, and hows, because it's already happened and we cannot change anything. 
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<div>I am just focusing on the fact that thank god he's alive, and focusing on his recovery, while taking care of "normal life stuff": our girls and school, bills, pets, food, and my own mental health.
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<div>I didn't cry and held myself up well, but our community, God bless you all, is what finally broke me (in a good way), and I couldn't stop crying, because people I didn't even know, whose names I don't know, had never met, never talked to before... somehow found me, reaching out and asking how they could help and saying they were praying for us. I genuinely thank you, everyone.
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<div>At first I said "no" when someone mentioned setting up a GoFundMe. I was like, why? I don't want to ask anybody for anything.
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<div>Then I started facing the reality, and people who heard about the tragedy and care about us gave advice that we need to learn to lean on others when it's offered and just be grateful.
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<div>So that's what I've decided to do and I agreed to set up this page.
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<div>We're already grateful to everyone who already has us in their prayers, and money isn't the only way to support us. Please keep my husband in your prayers, as he and our family have a whole new journey ahead of us.
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<div><strong>We don't expect anything from anyone, but we will be grateful for anyone who supports us in any way.</strong>
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<div>God bless you all.
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<div>Sincerely, The Gardner Family
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Seawon Yoon

Anonymous

songsun han

SOOYEON CHOI

Dasom Mun

Janet Char

Hyunjung Cha

Kenny Kang

Hyojin Dauzart

Yun Ah Choi

DOJUN KIM

Don Shin

Jeremy Chae

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platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

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Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

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US + Non-charity COs Only

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fund country is US and user language is English

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Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

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3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

GoFundMe Employees

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Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

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checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

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fallback mode accounts

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AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

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UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

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braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

currencyCode

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

Influencer - Prod

US fundraisers and US users

ai_title_page

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openai

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Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

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challenge-fundraisers

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New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

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