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Help widowed veteran artist save home & studio

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Former Air Force Sgt. Therese Stonehart supported her handicapped husband for 42 years, but his need for care escalated during the last two as he succumbed to metastatic prostate cancer.  Unable to work, her savings evaporating and forced to depend on his monthly disability check to pay their mortgage, she stands to lose her home following his death on June 26, 2020

Therese & Les Stonehart married on April 14, 1978.  Eight weeks later, Les was in a coma following a car accident in Chandler, AZ.  Therese was in boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base in TX.  Granted a seven day pass, she rushed home.


If he lived, doctors suggested institutionalization; her priest, an annulment.  Therese had sworn to love Les “in sickness & in health.”  She took a tape player to the hospital & played his favorite music.  She held him, sang, prayed & begged him to live.


When her leave expired, she persuaded the nurses to continue playing music for Les & returned to boot camp.  Weeks later, he woke up singing  "Lonely, Looking Sky" by Neil Diamond.  

He suffered brain damage, clearly remembering the past yet slow to absorb changes.  He was paralyzed & blind on his left side.  But he was still Les.  He still loved Therese & music and still had his keen sense of humor.  After months of therapy, he regained enough strength to care for himself while Therese worked.


Therese was stationed near home at Williams Air Force Base in AZ.  They resumed their favorite activities, even hiking.  Friends helped push Les’ wheelchair & lift him over pot holes & rocks. 


They went fishing & camping and out to hear live music.  Women wondered why so many guys asked Therese to dance—until one overheard Les ask a man to dance with his wife— because he couldn’t.


It was not easy on either of them to maneuver the wheelchair in & out of a van, over small steps and rough ground, through crowds, or find handicapped facilities for camping & fishing.  Often, they “made do.”  But they were determined to live the life they’d promised one another when they married.


Fearing that a deployment where Les could not accompany her would force her to place him in a nursing home, Therese reluctantly resigned from the Air Force after eight years. They moved to Paulden, AZ and opened a restaurant, so Les could visit with people while she worked rather than stay home alone.  Friends joined in the effort, but, like so many new restaurants, it failed.

Determined to make it on her own & inspired by the last name she shared with Les, Therese established her own business, “Art on Stone.”  Allowing the lines in stone to guide her, she paints countless coasters, plaques, house address signs, wine holders…her creativity is boundless.  She also paints residential & commercial murals, kitchen back-splash tiles, even entire houses, inside & out. 



Most of such work could be done at home, & when jobs took her away, Les accompanied her, whenever possible.  They made new friends in Paulden, attended local, live music events & art shows, and hosted summer BBQs & costume parties for Mardi Gras & Halloween. 


 Les was bound by a wheelchair, but his life was not confined—until two years ago, when prostate cancer struck.  

Due to his brain damage & paralysis, neither chemo nor radiation was possible.  He lost the strength to help her dress & transfer him from bed/chair/toilet.  He suffered from diarrhea, & the catheter caused urinary infections.  She bathed him & washed his bedding several times a day.  Often delirious, he required constant care & occasionally, inadvertently hit her.  She went months with only a few hours sleep.


Worst of all, Les often looked at her & asked, “Where’s Therese?”  She comforted him with touch & voice, reassuring him that she was there for him.  She couldn’t bear the thought of placing him in a hospice facility—where she could never be with him due to current visitation restrictions and where he would’ve died alone, wondering why she’d abandoned him.

Social Services provided respite care for five hours, one day a week, time that Therese used for errands and her own dental/medical appointments.  They couldn’t afford private care.  Neither did they have children to help them.  While Les could father children, he couldn’t even change their diapers alone.  They chose to be childless rather than risk being unable to adequately provide for them.

For the past two years, Therese could not leave Les alone & could not work.  Their savings dwindled; savings already depleted by damage due to flooding because of a failed well pump in 2018 and by a lightning strike in 2019.   With Les’ death, she loses his $1500 monthly disability check and the $300/wk she received for her caregiving.  Her only income now is her $1020/mo Social Security check.

She still has $47,000 left to pay on her mortgage.  If she loses her home & studio, she loses her ability to resume her business & remain independent.  She can’t store all the paint, stone & tile she needs in an apartment.


Her art is still in demand.  She takes fierce pride in being self-sufficient & will return to her work, but bills will mount faster than she can paint. 

I’ve known her for 15 years.  It is very hard for her to accept charity, but I & all her friends have persuaded her that this is a time to accept help.  She is an exceptional person & a wonderful artist.  We call her “St. Therese.”  She demurs.

An Arizonan magazine article praising Therese’s volunteer work for the handicapped quoted Therese saying, “That accident happened for a reason.  People don't really think about the handicapped or become involved until it happens to them or a friend… There is so much work for people to do but we sit back and say there isn’t.”  

There is.  

A little from many adds up to much.  Thank you.

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Donations 

  • Janet DuVal
    • $100
    • 4 yrs
  • Tim & Calleen Harrison
    • $1,000
    • 4 yrs
  • Vivian Farmer
    • $300
    • 5 yrs
  • kedron brook
    • $100
    • 5 yrs
  • Linda Vandevisse
    • $100
    • 5 yrs
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Fundraising team: Friends of Therese (3)

Sharon Duling Moehn
Organizer
Chino Valley, AZ
Therese Stonehart
Beneficiary
Edith Spain
Team member
Lorrain Ovaitt
Team member

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