Thank you for taking the time to read and consider donating to our fund. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Ashley and I am starting this GoFundMe for an amazing woman who started out as a neighbor and ended up like a second mother to me and a grandma to my kids. Charlene Levin is one of the most generous people I know. When I was a single mom, she watched my kids while I worked 10 hour days and only asked for $20 in return (which basically covered snacks she fed my kids and gas for taking them to their afterschool activities). She did this for over 3 years until her brother and sister-in-law moved in with her full time who are each battling serious illnesses. Charlene has been caring for them for over a year.
Charlene's husband, Mike Levin, had a stroke on October 28th and was in ICU for 5 weeks. When Mike started to show some improvement, they sent him to rehab but, unfortunately, he was only there for 1 day before he pulled out his feeding tube and they sent him back to the hospital. From there, his kidneys started to fail and his heart rate was all over the place. Charlene was only allowed minimal visits with Mike during this time due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The doctors recommended at this point to focus on Mike's quality of life. The options at the time were to be bedridden in a nursing home where visitors would not be allowed, or bring him home to be around his loved ones. Charlene chose to bring Mike home so they could spend the rest of his days together. For 10 days, Charlene took care of Mike around the clock, with some help from in-home hospice care. When Charlene could not longer handle the 24/7 constant care Mike required anymore, she had to make the difficult decision to send him to the hospice tranquility center. There she was able to be with Mike every day until he passed away on Christmas morning 11 days later.
Mike was a school bus driver for Cobb County School District and was the main financial provider for their family. Charlene is retired. As you can imagine, the household bills are starting to pile up and the hospital bills will be coming in soon. Mike wished to be cremated which will cost $850 alone. My goal is to raise at least this much to cover the expense. All other donations will go towards hospital bills and any other unexpected costs that comes with losing a loved one.
With all that Charlene has been through with the loss of her husband, and still being the main caregiver for her brother and sister-in-law, I want to do anything I can to help take care of the financial burden. No one should have to worry about how they are going to pay to cremate their partner. If you can give ANY AMOUNT, please donate to our fund. If you cannot afford to donate, please send prayers, good vibes, or you can get in touch with me if you would like to send flowers, donate a meal, write a card or anything else you can think of. I'd be happy to help arrange and deliver anything you would like to gift her with. Thank you all for your support and PLEASE give if you can.