Help Melinda Rebuild After Unimaginable Tragedy

Our hearts are heavy as we grieve the loss of a close family friend, Lee Frank Sawyer, a skilled carpenter and loyal friend, married twenty years to wife Melinda Wilson.

Lee, who suffered silently with mental illness, suddenly passed away on Friday, September 6th, 2024.

Melinda is currently facing an unimaginable burden, recently discharged from the hospital after going in for a medical emergency reconstruction of her digestive system, including the removal of sections of her intestines and repair. With a challenging situation of where she will be recovering from her own medical emergency procedure, she is now facing homelessness due to a tragic fire damaging their home beyond repair on the day of her discharge from the hospital.

Melinda's recent unimaginable hardships of dealing with funeral expenses, ongoing medical treatment, and the reality of homelessness which places our family friend in a troubled predicament, one we hope never to find ourselves, our family, and friends in such a situation.

We have set up this GoFundMe to help collect donations for future unknown needs. We can’t anticipate what financial hardships Melinda will face as a result of this tragedy. We don’t know how long Melinda will have to endure medical follow-up procedures or what future medical bills and expenses she will face on her road to recovery.

In summary, here are areas where donations would help Melinda in her time of need: funeral expenses, temporary housing, and future medical costs. There is so much uncertainty ahead, but with our support and the kindness of strangers, perhaps we can ease the reality of living with someone with mental illness.

Thank you for your time in reading our call to help a family friend in dire need. Please only donate what you are comfortable with. We will try our very best to update this page when we know more about how Melinda is doing. We hope with some much-needed support, we can help our friend in need.

Thank you for your love, kindness, and support.

Maria Allinger (family friend)