Help Sydney Care for Her Beloved Mom Sylvie

Sydney and Sylvie have a strong bond that feels beyond that between a mother and a daughter. They're best friends, they're sisters, they're each other’s worlds. They live together, go to shows together, and talk on the phone constantly. They would say that they've known one another for many lifetimes.

When Sydney called her mother Sylvie on her way home from work, like she always does, she didn’t answer. When Sydney came home to an empty apartment, she didn’t know where Sylvie was until opening up the Find My iPhone app on her laptop; she raced to the hospital.

It’s been over a month since Sylvie suffered a brain aneurysm and collapsed at the grocery store. Sylvie is semi-awake, using a ventilator, and she has a cerebral shunt implant. She watches Sydney when she walks across the room and listens when Sydney laughs and plays her favorites - Cat Stevens and classical music from their favorite ballets. There have been many surgeries and multiple drainage systems to relieve the pressure and fluid in her brain from the subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Sydney is one of the best people I know, and I’m so lucky we were hired at the same time, as it means we've been able to spend a majority of our time together in the last six years. At work, she is always her absolute best, and she makes me better for it too. She makes everyone around her better. She has the best laugh and the best mind. She’ll say her mother is the reason.

Sydney’s world has been turned upside-down as she takes on everything that comes with her mom’s hospitalization and future care plan, not to mention the monthly NYC bills that require juggling five jobs between them. Sydney has a very large community around her, and if we can take anything off her back, it’s easier to lift together.

We're asking for donations to provide the much-needed funds to help with hospital bills, dog care, rent, and food. We're sharing this with Sydney's Film at Lincoln Center community, but please share with others that might want to help.

Chelsea Tomasi