Help Lisa and Dan recover - it takes a village!

To know my sister and brother-in-law is to love them...and they need our help.

Lisa and Dan have lived in Lakewood, Ohio for 13 years. They have lived happily, helping to raise each other’s children, working hard and sailing through life’s ups and downs joyful and humble.

Recently their lives came crashing down with a medical emergency and financial crisis. They have struggled to stay above water, but alas the challenge has become too much.

Last year Lisa was healthy, happy and working at Old Brooklyn Cheese Company and Dan was rounding out his 30th year at Cleveland Time Clock. Things were good. Sadly, in January 2022, Cleveland Time Clock announced that it would close its doors, rendering Dan unemployed after 30 years. Thankfully he was able to find maintenance work with a local park system. The change was hard but they managed as they always had, by depending on each other.

In October, Lisa began to lose feeling in her hands and feet. She initially struggled to climb stairs and write. The unexplained symptoms quickly worsened, forcing her to leave the Old Brooklyn Cheese Company that she loved so much. Within a month, she was quickly losing not only feeling but function in her hands, then arms and legs. Thankfully, a team of neurology, neurosurgery and orthopedic specialists quickly diagnosed spinal stenosis in her neck. The condition was cutting the supply of spinal fluid from her brain stem to her neck, back and extremities. She was told that without immediate surgery she would become paralyzed.

On November 30th Lisa had surgery to stop the progression of paralysis, involving decompression and fusion on C2-C6 of her cervical spine (neck). With a stabilizing rod in place, she began an ongoing regimen of physical and occupational therapy, both twice weekly in hopes that she would one day regain some of the muscle movement and control that was lost. She continues this hard work four months later. To date, Lisa experiences excruciating daily nerve pain and still requires assistance with many daily tasks. She is now involved in the Cleveland Clinic Pain Management program searching for healthy ways to deal with chronic pain and learning to adapt to her “new normal”, despite severe limitations.

In January, when we thought things couldn’t get much worse, Dan was laid off from the park system. While he continues to fight for unemployment benefits, apply for new positions and do side work from dusk till dawn, their financial footing continues to worsen.

Today, as Spring begins, they face extreme uncertainty. The couple that paid their rent every month, on time, no matter what, for over a decade, is scraping by, at risk of losing their long-term rental home, their place of peace and healing.

And this is why I am asking for your help. Family and friends have come forward and are helping Lisa and Dan in every way we can, but it’s a heavy lift.

Having worked and lived in the community for my entire adult life, I have seen the wonders that a village can provide, if you are just bold and humble enough to ask for help… I am asking…

Thank you,

Love, Lilah Zautner and family