The picture is of my lifelong friend Richard Ornelas. He is 60 years old. As long as I have known him, he has been an incredible musician. He has played in several bands, doing gigs all around the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a kind, intelligent, passionate, and extremely articulate guy.

Rich is a great guy who has had many struggles throughout his life. He had battled with alcohol issues for four decades as someone who was undiagnosed as bipolar until recently. Now that he has been diagnosed and is on medication, he is finally free from the grips of alcohol addiction. Unfortunately, this happened so late in life that he has found himself in a nursing home in the Chicago area. Until his diagnosis, and for the last two years, he bounced between rehab centers, mental health facilites, and homeless shelters.

The bright side is that at the last mental health facility, they gave him a proper diagnosis and put him on medication. He has been free from alcohol now for eight months and is doing better in that respect. Currently he is living in a nursing home which is no place for a 60 year old man, especially one who is otherwise healthy and wants to go back to work and live on his own responsibly. The nursing home where he is housed does not let the patients leave to have a job. Depression has set in now that he is sober and he has realized that he may never leave this nursing home.

I want to help Rich with a small sum of money that would allow him to get a fresh start, go back into the world, get a job, and live out his days. Not asking for a lot but anything you can spare would help. I just want to give him the nudge he needs to get out of his current situation. Thank you, Steve T.