Help Jacob with school supplies after mom’s recent passing

My name is Jamie and my daughter has a very good friend whose mother passed away yesterday from liver failure. Reese and Jacob were instant best friends from the first day of Kindergarten. That brought me to come to know Jacob's mom, Christie. From the first event where parents came to the Kindergarten class, Jacob announced (very loudly) to his mom that he was going to marry Reese. From that day on, even though Christie was a single mom of two, she made sure to bring Jacob over on Valentine’s Day with flowers and a “diamond” ring. Then on the day after Reese lost her first pet snake, Snakesphere, he brought her a bouquet of flowers with a rubber snake hidden inside that made me crap my pants, lol. Christie did her best to be the best mom she could be for her kids.

Not long after my cancer diagnosis, Christie shared with me her diagnosis.It was hard to keep in touch because we both had major treatments happening during that time. I remember though, it didn’t take long for her to be on continuous dialysis. It was really hard when I started to get better and Christie wasn’t. It was almost never good news for her. I remember seeing Jacob at the Rising Sun Fest this summer and he told me she wasn’t doing good at all and was moving towards hospice. I told him that I was going to reach out to her, it had been a while since we’ve talked. That never happened and I feel so guilty for it. Life gets in the way, especially the last few years of bad luck my family has had. I want to make it up to her. I have a strong feeling that I need to make sure Jacob will be ok. His sister is grown and I’m not quite sure what his plans for the near future are but school starts in a couple weeks and I want to make sure he has everything he will possibly need without worry. I wish I could say that we could handle it all, but with the fire last summer and two kids of our own, it’s not possible. Especially since Reese and Jacob are going into 7th grade and Bradley will be in 5th. It’s a lot more money each year they get older .

My plan is to take him with us school shopping and him being able to get some clothes, whatever shoes he wants or needs along with supplies. Anything that may be leftover would go to him. Depending on how much it is I would either give it to his grandparents to keep safe for him or straight to him if it wasn’t too much. I understand completely, more than ever, that times are hard right now and I don’t expect anyone to donate but if you can, I will say thank you now and we greatly appreciate it! I’m sure Jacob will be relieved and Christie can rest easy knowing he is taken care of for at least the very near future.