Melody's Story: Traumatic Brain Inj
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We first met Melody, in 2000 when she joined the Davis Police Department as a crime analyst. She is highly educated with a Bachelor’s Degree in philosophy and exceeded our expectations as a crime analyst in the law enforcement field. In 2007, Melody made a career move, joining the newly established Citrus Heights Police Department, located in Sacramento County.
In addition to her regular job assignment and during her 10 year law enforcement career, she selflessly volunteered much of her time to the youths in both law enforcement communities working with the Police Activities League, holiday giving program that adopted over 100 less fortunate families, the domestic violence center, and any and all charity work she could get her fingers into. When you work at a police department, you see so many situations where people need help; her compassion for others fit right in and she spent much of her personal time working with community members who needed a helping hand.
Tragedy struck at 31 years old when Melody suffered a traumatic brain injury that affected her short term memory after a medical procedure that went very wrong. It took her approximately 3 years to get herself to a place where she could relearn many things and have the ability to exist in noisy environments so she could concentrate. Her long term memory is now pretty good, yet without short term, you cannot remember things like when you ate last, where you parked your car, that you have something on the stove cooking, when or where you were supposed to meet someone, or what you talked about with someone yesterday. She has been to my house many times, yet each time it is a new environment to her. She only remembers if she ate by using a ponytail holder on her wrist and switching wrist locations. Life is similar now to the movie "50 First Dates" as waking up each day erases the things that occurred the day before.
Devastated by her inability to return to her law enforcement career, Melody kept herself busy by volunteering her time at a local elementary school to help exercise her brain. She worked with first graders several days a week, assisting them with their reading, writing and other school projects to the best of her ability. She may go in every day and not remember the names of the students that she worked with on a daily basis, yet she did not let that embarrassment stop her from helping.
Working in the elementary school classroom and interacting with students first hand inspired Melody to write a children's book on bullying. The book is called "One in a Dogzillion" and encompasses the difficulties that students face every day when they are perceived to be “different” than others. And with Melody’s injury, the book speaks as much about herself as it does to the animal characters in the book. You see, people treat Melody different now and she lost many of her friends because they did not know how to cope with her disability and how to interact with her today. Melody hopes that this book will teach both children and adults to accept and love others who may be different than themselves and/or have life changing experiences such as hers.
Melody continues to have special gifts, intelligence and talent. We have so much faith in her abilities. She is a strong willed woman with the biggest heart of anyone we have ever met and is highly regarded by all who know and love her. We are so proud of her accomplishment and hope that you will enjoy the book as much as we do!
Our goal for this Go Fund Me page is to assist her in paying her house payment so that she does not lose her home. She owes approximately $120,000 so we are hoping to fundraise half of this amount so that she can refinance and have a smaller house payment to manage with her current limited income.
As well, we would like to offer the purchase of her books for children around the world to read so that she may continue to make a difference through the influence of the characters in the story. Books can be ordered at a discounted price, one at a time or in bulk, by emailing [email redacted]. We are hoping that maybe service clubs, schools and charitable organizations might purchase them in bulk for school districts or classrooms. The book speaks to children from ages 4 up to 10 years old.
We hope that you will help us support our goal and we thank you for your time and consideration.
Best Regards,
Friends of Melody
In addition to her regular job assignment and during her 10 year law enforcement career, she selflessly volunteered much of her time to the youths in both law enforcement communities working with the Police Activities League, holiday giving program that adopted over 100 less fortunate families, the domestic violence center, and any and all charity work she could get her fingers into. When you work at a police department, you see so many situations where people need help; her compassion for others fit right in and she spent much of her personal time working with community members who needed a helping hand.
Tragedy struck at 31 years old when Melody suffered a traumatic brain injury that affected her short term memory after a medical procedure that went very wrong. It took her approximately 3 years to get herself to a place where she could relearn many things and have the ability to exist in noisy environments so she could concentrate. Her long term memory is now pretty good, yet without short term, you cannot remember things like when you ate last, where you parked your car, that you have something on the stove cooking, when or where you were supposed to meet someone, or what you talked about with someone yesterday. She has been to my house many times, yet each time it is a new environment to her. She only remembers if she ate by using a ponytail holder on her wrist and switching wrist locations. Life is similar now to the movie "50 First Dates" as waking up each day erases the things that occurred the day before.
Devastated by her inability to return to her law enforcement career, Melody kept herself busy by volunteering her time at a local elementary school to help exercise her brain. She worked with first graders several days a week, assisting them with their reading, writing and other school projects to the best of her ability. She may go in every day and not remember the names of the students that she worked with on a daily basis, yet she did not let that embarrassment stop her from helping.
Working in the elementary school classroom and interacting with students first hand inspired Melody to write a children's book on bullying. The book is called "One in a Dogzillion" and encompasses the difficulties that students face every day when they are perceived to be “different” than others. And with Melody’s injury, the book speaks as much about herself as it does to the animal characters in the book. You see, people treat Melody different now and she lost many of her friends because they did not know how to cope with her disability and how to interact with her today. Melody hopes that this book will teach both children and adults to accept and love others who may be different than themselves and/or have life changing experiences such as hers.
Melody continues to have special gifts, intelligence and talent. We have so much faith in her abilities. She is a strong willed woman with the biggest heart of anyone we have ever met and is highly regarded by all who know and love her. We are so proud of her accomplishment and hope that you will enjoy the book as much as we do!
Our goal for this Go Fund Me page is to assist her in paying her house payment so that she does not lose her home. She owes approximately $120,000 so we are hoping to fundraise half of this amount so that she can refinance and have a smaller house payment to manage with her current limited income.
As well, we would like to offer the purchase of her books for children around the world to read so that she may continue to make a difference through the influence of the characters in the story. Books can be ordered at a discounted price, one at a time or in bulk, by emailing [email redacted]. We are hoping that maybe service clubs, schools and charitable organizations might purchase them in bulk for school districts or classrooms. The book speaks to children from ages 4 up to 10 years old.
We hope that you will help us support our goal and we thank you for your time and consideration.
Best Regards,
Friends of Melody
Organizer
Sandy Maraviov
Organizer
Loomis, CA
