This is my grandfather, Bennie Kindred. He's the hardest working man I know, and the person who taught me the value of hard work, honesty and doing right by others. He's also had to endure so much over his life. He served in the Navy, battled prostate cancer, had been taking care of his wife after a series of increasingly debilitating strokes, and until recently, had been doing hard physical labor to bring food to the table everyday.

He just turned 75. He should be retired, but the way our government is structured, he does not have a retirement fund to live on, nor does he have any means beyond basic yard-work to pay the bills. It breaks my heart to know that he still has to work as hard as he did when he was my age to survive.

It also breaks my heart to know that he had been paying for all of this with his own body. Last week, months of rising back pain came to a head when he found himself in such searing spinal pain that he had to — using two canes to walk, mind you — drive himself to the emergency room for immediate care. It turns out he had a badly compressed spinal canal and needed emergency surgery to fuse a few of his vertebrae together to restore his ability to walk without pain. A surgery this intense and sudden came at a shock to our entire family, and while the surgery was a success, my grandfather's road to recovery is still precarious at best.

Presently, he is in care, but will be leaving rehab next week (Dec. 14) because his insurance can only cover that much. We feel that that is too soon. To prevent him from having to return to everyday life on his freshly operated back, we want to keep him in rehab so he can get the care he deserves. We are afraid that if he is released too soon, he won't be able to recover properly, and that he will injure his spine again.

I can't singlehandedly change the way the American healthcare system is shaped, and how it affects others, but I can do everything in my power to do right by my granddaddy. That's why I'm asking y'all to donate. There is no donation too small, no act of kindness too minute. Our family appreciates everything you can give, even if that’s sharing this post so that someone who is able to help can.

Thank you so much, from the Kindred family.