Everything started as a wonderful Saturday on the Thanksgiving weekend. We had planned to take my mom (Nona - grandma in Italian) who was visiting from Argentina for the Holidays, to by our Christmas tree.

It was her first time going to a tree farm to get a fresh tree, eating marshmallows (as you can see in the picture) and we were enjoying so much the opportunity of having her spend for the first time Thanksgiving and the Christmas Holidays with my 7 years old daughter here in Atlanta.

Unfortunately, everything changed that afternoon while we were unloading the Christmas tree. While my daughter was scootering and showing Nona all her "scootering skills", my mom tried to go backwards and tripped on her foot and fell. The result was that the head of her femur broke.

She had surgery the following day, spent 10 days at the hospital and then went into a rehab center on December 5th 2023.

Despite the fact that she came on vacation with the maximum amount available for traveler insurance, due to her age, the insurance only covers up to $60K in medical expenses, and the total bill was almost $111K only for the hospital stay and surgery.

Due to that, the only way she could go into a rehab center to be able to get the care and help needed to get stronger and walk again was by paying out of pocket $11,000.00 a months.

On January 1st, life throw another curbed ball at us.... My mom was rushed to Emory St. Josephs. They found blood clogs in both lungs, and she was very lucky that it was caught before she would have a heart attack.

After 8 days she went back to the rehab center, where she is progressing in her rehab.

I'm very proud of her for all the effort she is doing to get back in shape quickly. She never complaints and always smiles.

This was not the Holidays we were planning to have, but we are grateful that she is alive and fighting to get back, at almost 90, to the independent woman she was.