Help Mike and Kendra through this tough period.
Donation protected
We desperately need some financial assistance for the next couple of months.
Let me provide a little background on how this situation came about.
My wife Kendra was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor late in 2022, had surgery and radiation therapy and has been in recovery mode ever since. I’ve been her 24-7-365 caretaker since then.
- Kendra hasn’t really gotten any better, unfortunately. There have been minimal gains and what I call parallel gains. For example, she used to have arbitrary choking episodes; now she has coughing spells. Since lowering her dose of hydrochordisol, she doesn’t get edema in her legs and feet anymore, but her dizziness didn’t reduce as expected.
- Kendra needs assistance throughout the day. She uses a walker because she cannot walk on her own without assistance; I'm always close by in case she begins to waiver. I have to help her get to/from the bedroom to the bathroom and to/from the bathroom to the living room. Additionally, I do other things for her, like bringing her meals, getting her meds and vitamins, getting her eye drops, etc. etc. Aside from this, I also do other things such as household stuff, run errands, get groceries, make meals and do the wash.
- I help her get dressed and take her to her doctor’s appointments. I wheel her around in a transport chair, both when we go to doctor's appointments and on the few times when she gets to go out with me to the grocery store or Costco.
I'm an actor and I haven’t done any acting work since 2023 due to my caretaking duties and because I can’t be away from Kendra for more than about 2 hours max. I have had some income from doing Tarot readings for an online metaphysical fair once a month, but it's not much at all.
We’ve been living on royalites I receive for a technical book I wrote (2 checks a year), a SAG pension, and credit cards.
- I’ve been receiving enough in the royalty checks to generally last us six months per check, but this past one was slightly smaller than anticipated and, as you know, the prices for a lot of things have gone up in the past year.
- My publisher is based in the UK and doesn’t take out US federal income tax, so we owe tax on the royalties. This was not a problem in the past when I was working because I typically made more than enough to cover the tax and prepay on next year’s taxes. Without working these past couple of years, I could not do so.
We live on a very lean budget and have for a long time – no frivolous spending whatsoever. In fact, we haven’t been out to a restaurant since before the pandemic.
So that’s pretty much how we arrived at this situation.
The donations you make will help us pay rent and expenses, which will tie us over until the next royalty check comes in.
The picture above is us in happier times. Kendra would rather you see and remember her like this than how she looks just now.
Kendra and I thank you in advance for your time and consideration! We appreciate if from the bottom of our hearts!
Organizer
Michael J Hernandez
Organizer
Glendale, CA