Help my grandparents please
This is for my grandparents. My Nana
and Poppy. They are to the right in the photo. My Nana and Poppy are very proud people and have never asked anyone
for help. But I know they need it. Let me start from the beginning.
In 2010, my grandfather, Poppy, almost died. While I was away at college, I got a call from my Nana and my mother telling me that Poppy was in the hospital. "It's not looking good" was something that everyone in the family kept saying. At one point, "he might not survive the week" and "have you thought about a will" was even stated. I asked what happened and no one knew. They said he was fine the night before, he had gone swimming in the pool (like he did every night), and then the next day he collapsed with a fever.
The doctors had no idea what was wrong with him. No one did. Test after test. Nothing. Days went by and his vital signs got worse and worse. I came home from college to be by his side. I watched as his skin turned orange from jaundice because his liver and kidneys were failing. I watched him lose 30 pounds. His appearance transformed in front of my eyes. His arms were covered in syringe marks because the nurses were taking blood every few hours to continue running tests. It was one of the most traumatic things I've ever encountered in my life. I thought he was going to die. I've never cried so much. He has always been my best friend, someone who has influenced me greatly into the person I am today, and someone I can tell absolutely anything to and out of nowhere I thought he was going to be taken away from me.
After a week and things getting drastically worse, they ended up transferring him to Northwestern Memorial downtown. They had an entire team of doctors working on him testing every possible hypothesis in the book. They asked him question after question. "Have you traveled outside the county?" "Do you do drugs?" "Have you eaten any exotic foods?" He had done none of these things. He informed them that he had gone swimming in the pool and saw something floating behind the ladder. Apparently a bat had landed in the pool and was trapped behind the ladder and under the ledge. He had fished it out with the net and it flew away. The next day was when he started vomiting, got a fever, and eventually collapsed.
With this information, the doctors quickly drilled down on diseases that can be spread through water as well as ones that can be spread from animals to humans. It didn't take long before they came up with leptospirosis, a bacterial disease transmitted through the urine of an infected animal. In short, the bat that was trapped urinated in the pool. Leptospirosis spreads when it is in water. Once they were able to identify that it was leptospirosis, they knew exactly how to fix it and prescribed the correct antibiotics. Within a few days, his liver and kidneys stopped failing. He was able to start eating solid foods again and after another week in the hospital was able to come home. He lived. Thank God he lived. I still am so happy to this day that he didn't die. However, he has had trouble remembering things that happened before the accident ever since.
I thought things were going to get better after he got out of the hospital. They didn't. Our dog had started to get sick towards the end of the time Poppy was in the hospital. The dog died shortly after due to kidney and liver failure. We are fairly certain it was due to licking the infected water that had come over the side of the pool due to a storm a few nights before she started getting sick. This disease, leptospirosis, took my dog and almost took my grandfather.
Then came the medical bills. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS worth of medical bills. Then, the business they own, a side street neighborhood bar, started getting bad. They fired one of their bartenders because they found out that she was giving drinks away for free. The IRS audited them. They were forced to pay around $2,000. Because of this, they weren't making enough money to pay for the mortgage on the house. It wasn't long before things went from bad to worse and they lost the house. The bank/mortgage company basically gave them a time and date to move out. Just like that, the house that I grew up in my entire life was taken away.
When they revisited the house to pick up some things they left behind a few days after that date they found that the locks had already been changed and also that a padlock had been put on the fence so that no one could get into the yard. Luckily, they were able to move above the bar because there is an apartment there. For the past few years they have been living in the apartment above the bar.
Since they have moved out, a pipe burst on the second floor of the house causing extensive water damage to the first floor ceiling. So much so that the ceiling collapsed. It collapsed into my old room that I grew up in. Also, the city has successfully charged them $600 in fines for not cutting the grass and pulling the weeds in the back yard even though they no longer live there. I really do not understand how this is possible. I just don't get it. When Nana and Poppy were in court asking how they were supposed to cut the grass with a padlock on the fence, they were informed, "climb over the fence." Does no one care about anyone anymore?
Every time I speak with my Nana, I hear another horror story. Poppy doesn't tell me anything because he doesn't want to worry me and Nana just needs someone to talk to.
The Water department is now trying to charge them for the water usage since the time they have moved out (claiming that they never called to turn it off) and the mortgage company is trying to charge them for the internal damage done to the house. Despite them not living there, apparently they were responsible.
They worked with two separate lawyers (as you can imagine this costs money) and finally declared bankruptcy. However, the problems are still there. The bills keep piling up. They still need people to come into the bar in order to make money and continue to pay their bills. Buying beer (at inflated prices from beer distributors) for patrons costs money, renewing the license for the bar costs money, electric bills for a bar costs a lot of money, having a dumpster to throw away beer boxes costs money.
I write this now because business is absolutely terrible. They're lucky if they have 1-2 people in the bar a night throughout the week. With medical bills, lawyer fees, and these continuous fines from the city, they are barely making it by. I am terrified that the next thing they are going to lose is their business which in turn, means they would, again, lose their house. And then what? I can't even bare to think about it.
I wish I could help them, but I can't financially. I'm 25 years old and my checks go right to my rent and my student loans. The most I could do for them was purchase them a laptop so that they could pay their bills online and communicate with the family via email. Every single dime that is donated is going to go right to them. I just want to hand them a check and say "you have nothing to worry about."
The money that is donated will go first go towards the essentials they need to pay for (mortgage for the building, bar license, lawyer fees, medical bills, garbage removal services, etc) and then the rest or whatever is left over is for them to just enjoy their life because they haven't been able to in such a long time. We used to go to South Haven, Michigan when I was a little kid for the Blueberry Festival. It's something that I will cherish forever. Nana brings it up from time to time and wishes she could go again. I would love to say to them, "Close the bar for the weekend, we're going to South Haven." I just want them to finally catch a break and this is the only way I know how to do it.
I've never told anyone this story. I've done it out of respect for my Nana and Poppy because I know they want to take care of their own problems. They never ask for help with anything, but sometimes, you just need to reach out and hope that someone listens to your story.
Anything that anyone could donate at this point would help. It would be a godsend. I just want them to be happy and not to have to worry about anything for a while.
In 2010, my grandfather, Poppy, almost died. While I was away at college, I got a call from my Nana and my mother telling me that Poppy was in the hospital. "It's not looking good" was something that everyone in the family kept saying. At one point, "he might not survive the week" and "have you thought about a will" was even stated. I asked what happened and no one knew. They said he was fine the night before, he had gone swimming in the pool (like he did every night), and then the next day he collapsed with a fever.
The doctors had no idea what was wrong with him. No one did. Test after test. Nothing. Days went by and his vital signs got worse and worse. I came home from college to be by his side. I watched as his skin turned orange from jaundice because his liver and kidneys were failing. I watched him lose 30 pounds. His appearance transformed in front of my eyes. His arms were covered in syringe marks because the nurses were taking blood every few hours to continue running tests. It was one of the most traumatic things I've ever encountered in my life. I thought he was going to die. I've never cried so much. He has always been my best friend, someone who has influenced me greatly into the person I am today, and someone I can tell absolutely anything to and out of nowhere I thought he was going to be taken away from me.
After a week and things getting drastically worse, they ended up transferring him to Northwestern Memorial downtown. They had an entire team of doctors working on him testing every possible hypothesis in the book. They asked him question after question. "Have you traveled outside the county?" "Do you do drugs?" "Have you eaten any exotic foods?" He had done none of these things. He informed them that he had gone swimming in the pool and saw something floating behind the ladder. Apparently a bat had landed in the pool and was trapped behind the ladder and under the ledge. He had fished it out with the net and it flew away. The next day was when he started vomiting, got a fever, and eventually collapsed.
With this information, the doctors quickly drilled down on diseases that can be spread through water as well as ones that can be spread from animals to humans. It didn't take long before they came up with leptospirosis, a bacterial disease transmitted through the urine of an infected animal. In short, the bat that was trapped urinated in the pool. Leptospirosis spreads when it is in water. Once they were able to identify that it was leptospirosis, they knew exactly how to fix it and prescribed the correct antibiotics. Within a few days, his liver and kidneys stopped failing. He was able to start eating solid foods again and after another week in the hospital was able to come home. He lived. Thank God he lived. I still am so happy to this day that he didn't die. However, he has had trouble remembering things that happened before the accident ever since.
I thought things were going to get better after he got out of the hospital. They didn't. Our dog had started to get sick towards the end of the time Poppy was in the hospital. The dog died shortly after due to kidney and liver failure. We are fairly certain it was due to licking the infected water that had come over the side of the pool due to a storm a few nights before she started getting sick. This disease, leptospirosis, took my dog and almost took my grandfather.
Then came the medical bills. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS worth of medical bills. Then, the business they own, a side street neighborhood bar, started getting bad. They fired one of their bartenders because they found out that she was giving drinks away for free. The IRS audited them. They were forced to pay around $2,000. Because of this, they weren't making enough money to pay for the mortgage on the house. It wasn't long before things went from bad to worse and they lost the house. The bank/mortgage company basically gave them a time and date to move out. Just like that, the house that I grew up in my entire life was taken away.
When they revisited the house to pick up some things they left behind a few days after that date they found that the locks had already been changed and also that a padlock had been put on the fence so that no one could get into the yard. Luckily, they were able to move above the bar because there is an apartment there. For the past few years they have been living in the apartment above the bar.
Since they have moved out, a pipe burst on the second floor of the house causing extensive water damage to the first floor ceiling. So much so that the ceiling collapsed. It collapsed into my old room that I grew up in. Also, the city has successfully charged them $600 in fines for not cutting the grass and pulling the weeds in the back yard even though they no longer live there. I really do not understand how this is possible. I just don't get it. When Nana and Poppy were in court asking how they were supposed to cut the grass with a padlock on the fence, they were informed, "climb over the fence." Does no one care about anyone anymore?
Every time I speak with my Nana, I hear another horror story. Poppy doesn't tell me anything because he doesn't want to worry me and Nana just needs someone to talk to.
The Water department is now trying to charge them for the water usage since the time they have moved out (claiming that they never called to turn it off) and the mortgage company is trying to charge them for the internal damage done to the house. Despite them not living there, apparently they were responsible.
They worked with two separate lawyers (as you can imagine this costs money) and finally declared bankruptcy. However, the problems are still there. The bills keep piling up. They still need people to come into the bar in order to make money and continue to pay their bills. Buying beer (at inflated prices from beer distributors) for patrons costs money, renewing the license for the bar costs money, electric bills for a bar costs a lot of money, having a dumpster to throw away beer boxes costs money.
I write this now because business is absolutely terrible. They're lucky if they have 1-2 people in the bar a night throughout the week. With medical bills, lawyer fees, and these continuous fines from the city, they are barely making it by. I am terrified that the next thing they are going to lose is their business which in turn, means they would, again, lose their house. And then what? I can't even bare to think about it.
I wish I could help them, but I can't financially. I'm 25 years old and my checks go right to my rent and my student loans. The most I could do for them was purchase them a laptop so that they could pay their bills online and communicate with the family via email. Every single dime that is donated is going to go right to them. I just want to hand them a check and say "you have nothing to worry about."
The money that is donated will go first go towards the essentials they need to pay for (mortgage for the building, bar license, lawyer fees, medical bills, garbage removal services, etc) and then the rest or whatever is left over is for them to just enjoy their life because they haven't been able to in such a long time. We used to go to South Haven, Michigan when I was a little kid for the Blueberry Festival. It's something that I will cherish forever. Nana brings it up from time to time and wishes she could go again. I would love to say to them, "Close the bar for the weekend, we're going to South Haven." I just want them to finally catch a break and this is the only way I know how to do it.
I've never told anyone this story. I've done it out of respect for my Nana and Poppy because I know they want to take care of their own problems. They never ask for help with anything, but sometimes, you just need to reach out and hope that someone listens to your story.
Anything that anyone could donate at this point would help. It would be a godsend. I just want them to be happy and not to have to worry about anything for a while.
Organizer
Ryan Nallen
Organizer
Chicago, IL