Keeping Kim Cool

Hi, my name is Debbie and I'm trying to raise money for my sister. You see my sister Kim is the most incredibly unselfish person I have ever known. She is a single mother of 4 beautiful children and grandmother to 7. Kim has struggled for her entire life, raising 4 children on her own and enduring years of domestic abuse. She and her children moved in with our parents, as she could not afford to live on her own. Her eldest daughter joined the US Army right out of high school and was stationed in Texas. After her tour was over, she settled in Arizona with her family. Kim's youngest son was also in the US Army and he too decided to relocate to Arizona. The other two followed. About 8 years ago, she moved from NY to Arizona to be with her children and grandchildren. She has been living with one or the other up until the spring of 2019. In the spring of 2019, our elderly parents were having great health difficulties and desperately needed care. Dad (career military) had severe COPD and mom had advanced vascular disease and vascular dementia. It was decided that we would move them from their home in NY to Arizona and Kim would live with them in order for our parents to have the proper care they so desperately needed. By doing this, Kim had to leave her job and live with our parents on very little and she did it without question and always with a smile! Three months after our parents arrived to AZ, dad passed. We think he was waiting until he knew that "everyone was ok". Eleven months after dad passed, mom did as well. It has been an incredibly difficult year to say the least! My parent's house in AZ needed to be sold as Kim would not have been able to afford to live there on her own, nor did she have the credit needed to put the house in her name. So, she had no job and no home and nowhere to go. We were able to find an old manufactured house in a 55 and over mobile home park and purchased it for her with the proceeds from selling mom and dad's house. It is her first real home; however, the house is in desperate need of repair! It needs everything from a kitchen, and bathroom and most of all, it needs a new central air system. You absolutely cannot live in AZ without air! After she packed up mom and dad's house and moved into hers, it was time for her to get back to work. As an uneducated 55-year-old woman, reinventing yourself at that age is not easy. She told me that caring for the elderly was so gratifying and gave her a sense of purpose that she decided that home health care was what she wanted to do for a living. It was the perfect career choice for her, as she has been caring for others her entire life! We quickly wrote a resume and posted it to every home health aide position available. She is now working, loving the work she's doing and all of her clients! So much so that last weekend she got word that one of her clients was in the ER. Knowing that her client had no family to help and she didn't want her to be alone, Kim drove to the hospital at midnight and stayed by her side until she was released the next day. My amazing sister (shown in the picture on the right with me on the left) needs a little help... She has been helping others for decades and I know she would never ask for herself... I am so appreciative to you for taking the time to read our story and helping someone that is so deserving!

Thankful and Grateful,

Debbie