Helping Cody Caldwell

Hi, my name is Vicky Cragg. On Monday, November 4th my partner was coming home from work and was in an automobile accident. He was Driving up Highway 18 back to Lake Cowichan when he was hit by a bin truck at the turn off for Bings Creek, the driver was watching another truck turning and didn't see my partner. He was T-boned on the passenger side of his work truck and was airlifted to Victoria General. He has suffered a traumatic brain injury amongst other things but is stable, he still hasn't woken up. He is a very big man, 7ft tall, we often joke about his size being a pain but I think it saved him. Right now it's hoping he improves and waiting hour to hour.

I'm not one to ask for help.. but I can't go back to work right away. He'll need me and since he has yet to wake up I don't know what his recovery is going to be like. I am currently driving back and forth from Lake Cowichan to Victoria trying to be with him as much as possible, but my finances are going to be very low very fast. I've lost 75% of our shared income as he made a lot more then I did, I'm not sure how long I can sustain myself let alone any help I'll need once he's awake.

Honestly I'm just frightened.. I'm trying my best to be strong but it's not easy. I love him more then I can convey in text, but I'm 23 and I feel so powerless. Luckily I'm disgustingly positive and he's my grumpy old man so generally we balance eachother out, but right now it's just me gushing that everything will be okay.

I know help will be easier once he's awake and I know what I need but I've been told the earlier I set this up the better. I feel selfish asking for help, as I need the financial help right now, but my goal is to raise enough to help with expenses once he's awake too. Right now it's helping with travels costs, his bills, repairs for the trailer but the goal is for medical costs, counseling, rehabilitation, etc that ICBC may not cover. I don't know what else there might be.. but as most people know fincances are tight for everyone right now, even without tragedy.

His family, friends, and work have been beyond helpful and I can't express my gratitude enough, but this is so much bigger then me and we could use all the help we can get. I know I already said it but I just love him so much and I want to get everything as situated as I can, he's generally the organized one out of the two of us and I know he'll be worried about everything as soon as he's lucid, especially finances. I just want to relieve any extra stress or burden.

I've already started the process for caregivers EI, his EI, and called as many places as I could that I thought should be informed. (his realtor, lawyer, car company, phone provider, hydro.) But just getting advice would be amazing too.. Thank you all so much in advance, even just the kind words mean the world to me.