Our wonderful brother, Matthews Owens, Berkeley's preeminent cello teacher, has recently been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, which led to a series of falls, and most recently a broken hip. While Matthew has been moved to his preferred facility, Fern Lodge, it is not known just how long he must remain there. The Go Fund Me funds are financing his continued rehabilitation and living expenses.

We are starting this fund in order to pay for a living situation where he can enjoy peace and receive the care he will need going forward as well as pay the medical expenses he has already accrued. Please donate if you can.

We appeal on his behalf, to his community and ours, for Matthew is a special person, beloved for his teaching which, goes far beyond the cello. He is also a painter, poet, composer, and writer. Matthew independently performs his own unselfish community outreach bringing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the homeless nearby at Christmas each year and Oreo cookies all through the year to those in his neighborhood, where he is known as the "Oreo Man."

There is nothing that Matthew possesses either within him or materially that he has not openly and generously shared with others his entire life. He has lived his live in an unceasing spirit of generosity, loving all humanity and deeply touching all who come in contact with him. His love for humanity is only equal to his love of nature and animals.

Matthew has been suffering tremendously since January of this year and his health is precarious. We will have to sell things that are deeply meaningful to him and he will no longer be able to live in his home. He is spiritually able to withstand these calamities, but Matthew, who unselfishly cared for his late wife in her final years and who has, in his 72 years not harmed a soul, simply does not deserve to suffer so. Please help us bring him some peace and comfort.