Resilience Through Rock ‘n Roll - I Owe People For My Survival and Am Publishing a Book!

$150,000

Good day, I hope you are well :) My name is Laila Li McCleery.

Thankfully, I am well today thanks to many rescuers in my life since 2005. I have been housed in a classmate’s first mortgaged home, a fixer-upper AirBnB, a lovely farm family, a secluded basement estate, and elsewhere in relationships to keep me safe from the indescribable public. The world has changed a lot since I moved in with my father, a veteran, in 2016. Even before then, I saw the changes that would prove that I could not treat my agitating disorder and tragic abuse that followed my birth in 2002.

I was born to Lea Ann Ray, a veteran, addict, and child abuser, with a condition called Phenylketonuria, a rare disorder affecting newborn nutrition, and, if not treated, lifelong metabolic digestion and mental health disabilities. Tommy Narron, a criminal and child abuser, brought methamphetamine into my father’s home while he was overseas in Afghanistan on his first combat tour, and committed crimes against children, the state, and God. I was two years old and my sister was 16 months old.

A garage bandmate found us 4 days after Lea Ann and friends had fled the scene. Police had been called and spooked the group, and she proceeded to close the both of us into our bedroom closet, reverse the lock on the bedroom door, and abandon us.

For 96 hours, we starved. I believe my sister died that day, as I haven’t seen her light since. We were found by our neighbor as skin and bones, covered in feces, urine, and bruises. They call this kind of lifelong starvation “excessive protein catabolism”.

As I’ve continued through foster care, adoptions, chores, community acceptance, misunderstandings, public school, private school, homeschool, endless customer service jobs, and college, I decided to create a band of brothers (whoever they may be) to share my story in coded, digestible language. This has not been without its cost (mentally and financially), which increased as I took my health upon myself to solve after escaping an unhealthy 3-year old relationship with my bandmate in 2023.

I would like to afford a new birth certificate from Fort Sill, Oklahoma (my parents have lost this twice) and a passport to go on an international tour that I’ve been working very hard to be selected for.

Today, women are not encouraged to help themselves. Refusing to rot, I’ve seen the same mental health professional for 6 years, visited nutrition specialists, dentists, ran labs from cardiology and neurology to confirm that, yes, I still have Phenylketonuria and, due to the excessive starvation, have developed undisclosed mental health disabilities and dangerous heart disease (still monitoring). I’m not sure how I’m maintaining pondgorl’s Salivation [my songwriting business, my record], as I sit with electrodes pasted to my skull on my adoptive mother’s birthday.

I want to give back. My dream is to afford her a nice birthday gift, pay my medical bills, to pay my community the rent that I severely owe — to stop borrowing, and to help the families themselves that have helped me survive. Currently I work as an audio engineer and house cleaner who relies on live music events to eat and remain present in my friends and family’s lives, and I am "too proud" of myself for someone so poor.

I’m aware this passage is long-winded, but I’ve witnessed a larger village than I could’ve imagined help me survive the last 21 years, and would love to prove to my sister, who is now a mother and addict as well, that such support is possible. I owe at least $60,000 in medical debt, not including the joke of 2020-2023 education’s student loan bills (amounting to something like $150,000). I am asking for help, in hopes you might understand. Alexa, play “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” by The Temptations!

This is a lot of money, but I swear to the system, you will see in many future stories that it is incredibly worth it. To listen to my music, visit bandcamp.com/pondgorl , if you feel so inclined!

Extra special thanks and love to:

My dad, Brian Dale McCleery

Kendra Feltman Morris

Carol Lewis Morris

Kenny Morris

Dan Feltman

Kimberly Lyons

Liz Petty

Tricia Ford

AJ Nance

The Sizemore Family

Sandra Driver

Stacy Reid

Laurie Martin Carter

Crystal Dongoske

Isaiah Dale McCleery

and Lana Rae.