Rick Baldwin World Class Guy ALS

Rick's Story ALS / FTD:
As many of our friends and family know, we have been blessed to have in our hometown a small wine shop. It's owned by Rick and his wife Susan. We happened upon it one Friday night by accident six years go.  It has become a gathering place for many in our community.  Over the years Rick has taught us a lot about wine.  Whether a wine is better with food, is the wine balanced, jammy or corked.  After 6 years of regular Friday night tastings, wine sharing and deep friendships have developed.  We have seen each other through marriages, divorces, births, deaths and job losses. There has always been a shoulder to cry on or someone to rejoice with.
What Rick is teaching us now:
Courage and Grace 
Rick was diagnosed with ALS-better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease over a year ago. It is a nervous system disease that weakens muscles and impacts physical function. Not long after that he was also diagnosed with FTD ( Frontal Lobe Demetia) frontal and temporal lobes of the brain are lost. This causes the lobes to shrink. FTD can affect behavior, personality, language, and movement.
He hasn't been able to work at the shop for some time. He is now in a wheelchair and is fed through a feeding tube.  He can no longer speak.  Susan is at his side around the clock. But Rick still comes to the wine shop if even for just an hour on Fridays to see his friends.  He is there to greet us with a fist bump and a double "thumbs up".  With his stellar attitude Rick has been a living example of how courage, love and inner strength can carry you through life's most challenging times.  And behind every good man is a woman.  And that would be Susan.  She said it is the biggest honor in her life to care for Rick.
How to help Rick: 
Rick and Susan can no longer work at the shop.  Some of us have organized friends and family that have volunteered to help with miscellanious things for Rick and Susan. e.g., yard work, social visits, staying with Rick for limited time increments so that Susan can go to the market, fill prescritions, or just take a walk. Not everyone is able to volunteer.  That's why we wanted to set up a Go Fund Me page. The money donated through Go Fund Me will be used for:

1.  Supplement rent on their Condo. This is the immediate largest financial challenge presently.  It would be impossible for them to move right now with all of the hospital equipment set up. We want to make sure that they can stay where they are as long as need be.
2.  Caretaking is a stressful 24-7 job.  We would like to make it possible for Susan to get a massage every once in awhile for some stress relief and downtime.
3.  Pay for masseuse to come and give Rick a chair massage 
4.  Have a housekeeper come in every other week to assist Susan. 

We sincerely thank you for taking the time to read this. Please keep Rick and Susan in your prayers.

Kirk & Sheri MacDowell


And for our WCW family:
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came;
You want to be where you can see,
Our troubles are all the same;
You want to be where everybody knows your name.
Cheers
Lyrics by: Gary Portnoy & Judy Hart Angelo


2 Corinthians 9:7
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for our Heavenly Father loves a cheerful giver.