Help Naomi stay in her home

Meet Naomi – she is in her 50’s. She lives alone in a little cedar shake cottage in Portland. She’s a mom. She’s an avid gardener, a lover of dogs and cats, and community.

And she has early-onset dementia.

We are Ross and Michelle. Ross is Naomi’s former spouse. Michelle is Ross’s wife. We stepped in to help Naomi when we realized that Naomi didn’t have anyone around to help her cope with this extraordinary life-changing event. Naomi (and we) discovered her condition when she suffered a seizure and collapsed, resulting in her temporary hospitalization. While she was being treated, it became clear that there was a lot more going on. Naomi was initially struggling very much to recall what had happened to her or why she was even in the hospital. But after a long round of interviews and tests, we learned that Naomi was showing the signs of early onset dementia, which affects around 350,000 Americans.

We weren’t sure at first whether Naomi would be able to even return home, but with a lot of good care from her doctors and a lot of help from some close friends and family, we were able to help Naomi get settled back in her house. Naomi’s life has been tremendously impacted by this. Things we all take for granted are now very hard for her, and more changes are coming fast. Naomi’s biggest hope is to remain as independent as possible for as long as she is able, while staying connected to her community and people around her. Due to her condition, Naomi is no longer able to work to support herself, and is very much reliant on benefits and the assistance of family members to allow her to remain in her home.

One of the things we discovered when we stepped in to help Naomi regain some control over the management of her daily life was that she had a lot of bills – some of which she didn’t even know about, because she couldn’t remember where or how she had spent the funds. And most of which she wasn’t in a position to pay. We also discovered that she had been the victim of scam artists, who had convinced her to give them access to her accounts and had stolen from her. And after we brought Naomi home from the hospital, we learned that her front door had been broken (no one managed to break in, but the door was damaged). We were able to ensure that it would close safely, but it needs additional repairs.

We have set a goal of raising $10,000. This will allow Naomi to eliminate her past due bills and old debts, including those incurred when she was targeted by the scam artists.

Without those debts, Naomi will be able to live on her monthly benefits and can remain in her home with her dog Maggie and her cats – Perry and Lavender. We think that helping Naomi to live in peace and security in her own home for as long as possible is a worthy goal. We hope you do too.

Thanks to any of you who are able to contribute to her account.

Love from Ross, Michelle and Naomi (and Maggie, Perry and Lavi too!)