Justine suffered a brain aneurysm on January 16 and spent the next 22 days in the ICU at Methodist Hospital. She was finally moved out of the ICU to the neurology unit late in the day on Friday, Feb. 7th. Even with continued improvement, she will likely be kept in the hospital until the end of next week. Fortunately, she has a good health insurance plan through her employer. That being said, she does have an out-of-pocket max of about 10K that she will be responsible for. In addition to that, she has the usual monthly bills such as car payments, insurance premiums, groceries, phone, etc. She has been out of work for almost a month and her ability to return to work remains unknown at this time. The bottom line is she’s going to need some financial help.

If you know Justine at all, you know she has a heart of gold and thrives on helping others, but learning to accept help from others is difficult for her. After several discussions with her, Laurie and I have helped Justine realize that there are people who want to help and it's okay to accept that help. If you’re one of the many people who have asked how you can help, and you’re financially able, a gift to help Justine would truly help reduce much of the stress and anxiety she has been harboring about how she's going to pay her bills.