I want to tell you about my mom, Suzanne.  When I think of her, the words that come to mind are:
*Resilient
*Hard-working
*Strong
*Fighter
*Determined
She has a really unique and special story, one that includes a lot of time where she has battled illness.   She is 67 years old and has been battling Multiple Sclerosis for almost 32 years.  Presently, she lives independently with the help of caregivers that lift her out of her wheel chair to get to the bed and to get to the bathroom.  They help with her meals and help her get to appointments.  They have been the only way in the last two years she has been able to live at home. 

Two years ago, in addition to her MS diagnosis, she was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, blood cancer.  This is incurable.  And her cancer markers keep rising.  My siblings and I could not believe she was dealt another blow like this but she has been a resilient fighter throughout this battle.  Before her cancer diagnosis she did not need daily caregivers to help her live independently but once she started receiving chemo she just couldn't make her transfers out of her wheelchair with safety - so the helpers started coming every day. 

Mom has been a good steward of her money all her life.  She has been employed full-time as a single parent and raised three children.  When the MS made it impossible to drive, she started her own business out of her home so she could pay her own way and meet her bills.  She never had any government assistance and always paid what was hers to pay.  When the cancer struck - she had to finally retire at the age of 66 from her part-time business because she no longer had the emotional and physical capacity to keep working each day.  She has been living off her 401K and the last of her savings... but it is finally running out. 

Her caregiver expenses total over $6000/month to pay for enough care to keep her in her home.  She truly believes if she goes to a retirement home she will die.  Without the ability to get up without assistance, she envisions sitting in a bed all day until a nurse has the time to help her up.   The caregivers she has now come to the home for just enough hours to help get her through her day.  At times she goes longer without a caregiver, sitting in her chair at home for up to 3 hours, so that she can make her funds stretch longer.  She also does not have anyone in her home overnight and waits for caregivers to arrive each morning so she can get out of bed. 

Her three adult children help her financially as much as we can but it still is not enough.  When her money runs out in September, we as her family will be pulling together as much money as we can each month to help support her needs but we will still be short.  Even after the financial help from family,  Mom believes she will still need about $3000 a month to meet her expenses and not have to go to a retirement home for care. 

There are 3 things we would like to ask from you:
1.  Would you consider donating $10? 
2.  Would you consider sharing this with as many people as you can?  We only need 3000 people to donate $10 and we will meet the goal of keeping mom in her home for the next year.  The money will go directly to paying caregivers for taking care of Mom in her home. 
3.  Would you consider praying for healing for our mom and for a way to care for her during this struggle?

This means so much to our Mom.  She has done so much to fight all the illnesses her body has been diagnosed with.  It is our turn to fight for her.  Our hope is she will be able to fight these last battles in her home, surrounded by her friends and family.  It is also our hope that by keeping her in her home, she may actually succeed in fighting these illnesses and live a longer life filled with friends and family surrounding her. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know our mom through this campaign.  We are so grateful for any help you can provide.