Honoring George & Janet
Donation protected
UPDATE: GOAL ALMOST REACHED!!
If the goal is reached, feel free to keep giving if you feel compelled. Doesn't hurt to give her more than the somewhat arbitrary goal I set.
You all are absolutely incredible. Thanks for making today full of happy tears. <3 <3 <3
PS... I'll be traveling to help Janet move on AUG 27th. I'll be giving her this in person at that point and will share with you all then. Gonna leave this live in case people want continue to give. You all are amazing. Thank you thank you. <3
THE BASICS
A few days ago my dad lost his battle with Multiple Sclerosis and passed away.
His caretaker was Janet.
She became his partner and gave her life over entirely to him.
I want to help her now because of how she helped give my father a beautiful and comfortable life.
Would love your help in providing for this incredible angel.
A LITTLE MORE DETAIL:
TO CHANGE THE WORLD, CHANGE ONE PERSON'S WORLD.
Dad never wanted a funeral. Through his gapped tooth smile and with his dark (and often blunt) tone of humor he would say, "Funerals are for the living. The dead don't care... they're dead."
While I understand what he's saying, it does help us all to process by celebrating and honoring our loved one who has passed.
When thinking about how to honor my dad appropriately in this time, it's very clear to me: honor and support JANET, his life partner who has spent the last 15 years taking care of him and loving on him through all of his physical and emotional struggles with MS.
If you don't know my dad, his personality is some sort of combo of Larry David and Hunter S. Thompson: honest to the point of insensitivity with zero regard for authority. My dad differs, however, because buried under his often abrasive communication and insensitive jokes he has always had a real deep capacity to be extremely kind and loving. You just had to know how to look for it. [For years he sponsored a young girl from the Philippines who he's kept in touch with until his final days (30ish years). She still calls him Uncle George and is like a surrogate sister to me. On his limited disability income, I just found out that he would find a way to budget in some wooden cross sculptures to give to his nurses and he would buy school supplies and winter clothes for kids in need in his hometown, Virginia City, NV].
A mountain man at heart, he was happiest when hiking in Yosemite and would constantly talk about the beauty of Half Dome and Mt. Conness (often while wearing a Half Dome hat and a Half Dome shirt while standing in front of his many framed Ansel Adams and Brad Wagner Yosemite photos that hung on his walls).
When his MS really started to take a toll on his body and he couldn't hike anymore he was confined to a small apartment in Virginia City, NV. He would've gone crazy if his guardian angel didn't come into his life.
Enter Janet.
About 15 years ago Dad hurt his hip and had to go to a nursing home for recovery. Another one of his sayings was "The squeaky wheel gets the grease" and he was "squeaky" as all hell (always embarrassing us at restaurants with his high demand of service). Janet was a caretaker at the nursing home and said that nobody wanted to deal with Dad because he was so grumpy and mean. Being a pistol herself she took him on, and through some miracle, fell for him.
The nursing home didn't want to discharge him because he was pretty feeble. He always had a real disdain for hospitals and sort of broke out of there. Janet, knowing his limitations, told him that she'd come by on her day off to help him. She helped my dad, FOR FREE, on her DAY OFF, every week for FIVE YEARS. During this time they fell for each other and eventually Janet moved in with my dad becoming his full time caretaker for the next 10 years.
My dad is a private person so I won't get into the details, but it was very selfless work she did. Meanwhile she would also be collecting boxes of thrift goods to send back to the Philippines for people in need. She was also awarded a "Caretaker of the Year" award from President Obama because of her selfless work in reuniting a separated family she heard about (she didn't attend the ceremony because she was embarrassed). She's always put everyone else first and radically affected people's lives through tiny changes and support.
She met my dad 3 months after moving here from the Philippines and he has been her sole obsession for 15 years. She's given him the most amazing life. In classic Dad style, hiding beautiful sentiment in dark jokes he would tell Janet, "God obviously loves me more than you. You only got me, but I got you."
Now she is lonely. She's lost her life partner of 15 years. Her "Handsome American Dude." She's starting life anew. She's not entitled to any of the normal benefits because they never properly married and Nevada doesn't honor common law marriage. I want to give her a financial buffer so she can get on her feet during this transition.
A small thank you for her relentless selflessness that gave my dad so much happiness and changed his entire world.
I hope anyone reading this who has experienced some small kindness that affected them in a big way might consider paying it forward and supporting this fund for Janet.
Love you all.
-Kenny, Jenna & Sarah
PS... I'm not putting her photo in here because she doesn't know I'm doing this and I'm not sure if she'd be embarrassed or not. <3
If the goal is reached, feel free to keep giving if you feel compelled. Doesn't hurt to give her more than the somewhat arbitrary goal I set.
You all are absolutely incredible. Thanks for making today full of happy tears. <3 <3 <3
PS... I'll be traveling to help Janet move on AUG 27th. I'll be giving her this in person at that point and will share with you all then. Gonna leave this live in case people want continue to give. You all are amazing. Thank you thank you. <3
THE BASICS
A few days ago my dad lost his battle with Multiple Sclerosis and passed away.
His caretaker was Janet.
She became his partner and gave her life over entirely to him.
I want to help her now because of how she helped give my father a beautiful and comfortable life.
Would love your help in providing for this incredible angel.
A LITTLE MORE DETAIL:
TO CHANGE THE WORLD, CHANGE ONE PERSON'S WORLD.
Dad never wanted a funeral. Through his gapped tooth smile and with his dark (and often blunt) tone of humor he would say, "Funerals are for the living. The dead don't care... they're dead."
While I understand what he's saying, it does help us all to process by celebrating and honoring our loved one who has passed.
When thinking about how to honor my dad appropriately in this time, it's very clear to me: honor and support JANET, his life partner who has spent the last 15 years taking care of him and loving on him through all of his physical and emotional struggles with MS.
If you don't know my dad, his personality is some sort of combo of Larry David and Hunter S. Thompson: honest to the point of insensitivity with zero regard for authority. My dad differs, however, because buried under his often abrasive communication and insensitive jokes he has always had a real deep capacity to be extremely kind and loving. You just had to know how to look for it. [For years he sponsored a young girl from the Philippines who he's kept in touch with until his final days (30ish years). She still calls him Uncle George and is like a surrogate sister to me. On his limited disability income, I just found out that he would find a way to budget in some wooden cross sculptures to give to his nurses and he would buy school supplies and winter clothes for kids in need in his hometown, Virginia City, NV].
A mountain man at heart, he was happiest when hiking in Yosemite and would constantly talk about the beauty of Half Dome and Mt. Conness (often while wearing a Half Dome hat and a Half Dome shirt while standing in front of his many framed Ansel Adams and Brad Wagner Yosemite photos that hung on his walls).
When his MS really started to take a toll on his body and he couldn't hike anymore he was confined to a small apartment in Virginia City, NV. He would've gone crazy if his guardian angel didn't come into his life.
Enter Janet.
About 15 years ago Dad hurt his hip and had to go to a nursing home for recovery. Another one of his sayings was "The squeaky wheel gets the grease" and he was "squeaky" as all hell (always embarrassing us at restaurants with his high demand of service). Janet was a caretaker at the nursing home and said that nobody wanted to deal with Dad because he was so grumpy and mean. Being a pistol herself she took him on, and through some miracle, fell for him.
The nursing home didn't want to discharge him because he was pretty feeble. He always had a real disdain for hospitals and sort of broke out of there. Janet, knowing his limitations, told him that she'd come by on her day off to help him. She helped my dad, FOR FREE, on her DAY OFF, every week for FIVE YEARS. During this time they fell for each other and eventually Janet moved in with my dad becoming his full time caretaker for the next 10 years.
My dad is a private person so I won't get into the details, but it was very selfless work she did. Meanwhile she would also be collecting boxes of thrift goods to send back to the Philippines for people in need. She was also awarded a "Caretaker of the Year" award from President Obama because of her selfless work in reuniting a separated family she heard about (she didn't attend the ceremony because she was embarrassed). She's always put everyone else first and radically affected people's lives through tiny changes and support.
She met my dad 3 months after moving here from the Philippines and he has been her sole obsession for 15 years. She's given him the most amazing life. In classic Dad style, hiding beautiful sentiment in dark jokes he would tell Janet, "God obviously loves me more than you. You only got me, but I got you."
Now she is lonely. She's lost her life partner of 15 years. Her "Handsome American Dude." She's starting life anew. She's not entitled to any of the normal benefits because they never properly married and Nevada doesn't honor common law marriage. I want to give her a financial buffer so she can get on her feet during this transition.
A small thank you for her relentless selflessness that gave my dad so much happiness and changed his entire world.
I hope anyone reading this who has experienced some small kindness that affected them in a big way might consider paying it forward and supporting this fund for Janet.
Love you all.
-Kenny, Jenna & Sarah
PS... I'm not putting her photo in here because she doesn't know I'm doing this and I'm not sure if she'd be embarrassed or not. <3
Organizer
Kenny Laubbacher
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA