Keep Cathy afloat 2021
Donation protected
Cathy is a warm, funny, clever woman and my mother. She is currently alone in a rehabilitation and medical care facility in central Florida while my wife and I, her only family, are in Asheville, North Carolina. Please, help us bring her up here to live where she can be loved and cared for.
My mother, Cathy, has been living on her own in Florida since I moved to Asheville in 2011. I have always hoped to move her up to the mountains with me, eventually, but she is fiercely independent, incredibly stubborn and reluctant to take any assistance that makes her feel like a burden. This has led to her working as a barber well past when her body began begging her to retire.
Now she has been forced to close her barber shop, not because she wanted the rest, but because she simply could not stand for eight hours a day any longer. The cartilage in her knees is gone and, with a massive medical debt left behind following a fight with breast cancer, she cannot afford to have her knees replaced. This, alone, was looking dire and, amidst the stress, she had to say goodbye to one of her beloved dogs. Lottie, had seen Cathy through cancer, but was very old and becoming increasingly disabled and could not go on. Cathy needed the companionship, but could not force Lottie to suffer any longer.
Things only became worse when Cathy was hospitalized for atrial fibrillation twice within a few months. Her heart rate was rapid and she was frequently short of breath. Her second hospitalization saw her in an ICU bed for 11 days while they struggled to get her heart rate down from 140bpm. When the hospital doctors finally found the right balance of meds, my mother found that she had laid in that bed so long that her legs refused to work. She was immobile.
I flew down to Florida, taking a week off from work, to get her set up in the rehab center, but this is NOT a workable long term solution. She is lonely, depressed, and uncomfortable. She is unable to return to her home as it is not navigable with a walker or wheelchair and is too large for her to care for alone. Not to mention that, should anything happen, she would not have help in any immediate way. This is why I want to travel down again to clean, empty and sell her house and get a place here in NC where she can have a comfortable and manageable place to live. This may be an apartment in a shared home with my wife, Teresa, and I or an independent apartment nearby. Either way, I want to be able to see her regularly and take care of the tasks she needs assistance with.
It's awful circumstances that have let to her retirement, but I want to make the most of it for and with her. I think, with work, and with her Medicare starting at the end of 2020, we can get her on her feet again and help her start enjoying life to the fullest instead of working every minute. She deserves it. I want to give her a bright future, but I need your help.
My mother, Cathy, has been living on her own in Florida since I moved to Asheville in 2011. I have always hoped to move her up to the mountains with me, eventually, but she is fiercely independent, incredibly stubborn and reluctant to take any assistance that makes her feel like a burden. This has led to her working as a barber well past when her body began begging her to retire.
Now she has been forced to close her barber shop, not because she wanted the rest, but because she simply could not stand for eight hours a day any longer. The cartilage in her knees is gone and, with a massive medical debt left behind following a fight with breast cancer, she cannot afford to have her knees replaced. This, alone, was looking dire and, amidst the stress, she had to say goodbye to one of her beloved dogs. Lottie, had seen Cathy through cancer, but was very old and becoming increasingly disabled and could not go on. Cathy needed the companionship, but could not force Lottie to suffer any longer.
Things only became worse when Cathy was hospitalized for atrial fibrillation twice within a few months. Her heart rate was rapid and she was frequently short of breath. Her second hospitalization saw her in an ICU bed for 11 days while they struggled to get her heart rate down from 140bpm. When the hospital doctors finally found the right balance of meds, my mother found that she had laid in that bed so long that her legs refused to work. She was immobile.
I flew down to Florida, taking a week off from work, to get her set up in the rehab center, but this is NOT a workable long term solution. She is lonely, depressed, and uncomfortable. She is unable to return to her home as it is not navigable with a walker or wheelchair and is too large for her to care for alone. Not to mention that, should anything happen, she would not have help in any immediate way. This is why I want to travel down again to clean, empty and sell her house and get a place here in NC where she can have a comfortable and manageable place to live. This may be an apartment in a shared home with my wife, Teresa, and I or an independent apartment nearby. Either way, I want to be able to see her regularly and take care of the tasks she needs assistance with.
It's awful circumstances that have let to her retirement, but I want to make the most of it for and with her. I think, with work, and with her Medicare starting at the end of 2020, we can get her on her feet again and help her start enjoying life to the fullest instead of working every minute. She deserves it. I want to give her a bright future, but I need your help.
Organizer
Nix Hunter
Organizer
Rockledge, FL
