Addition for Richie

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all who have donated so far, we had enough to complete the ramp!!


Please help us finish our house addition for our dear friend Richie so he can keep his independence (as we all know, he is as independent!) but live safely with us.

He recently got out of the hospital following an emergency and has an operation in late June. He has also been diagnosed with heart trouble. Both of these health ailments have increased the need for him to live with us in our home.  

Richie will be 80 years old this fall and is considered the wise man on the mountain for a small rural community in upstate New York.  Richie is always there to help anyone that needs it, including kids (and many adults!) in the community who need direction in life, and is truly the heart of this small community.


Unfortunately Richie is no stranger to hospitals; in 1962, Richie was in a tragic accident while working for the NYS Thruway. At only 21 years old, he was helping a young woman broke down on the side of the thruway when a tractor trailer hit him at full speed. He then spent 13 months at Albany Medical Center beginning with 3 days of surgery by 8 different specialists and ever since has remained with a paralyzed hand, and lives with chronic pain from a reconstructed, shortened leg that is also susceptible to life-threatening infections. 


Richie came home June of 1963 and since then, he has been full of life and always the one to make others feel better. While in the hospital, he was the one that people came to when they needed cheering up, and after his recent stint in the hospital his first joke was “Doctors still have no sense of humor!” 

He credits the nurses with helping him to maintain a positive attitude throughout his recent ordeal, just as they did in 1963 during his long recovery from the thruway accident. 


Richie is staying with us in our house where he will continue to stay as long as he wants to. While he is cheered up daily by the presence of my boys, he is extremely independent and would like his own area. Richie has a great love and respect for nature and the outdoors, and spends much time taking care of the woods on his property. While he has been laid up at times due to his early injuries in life, Richie has never given in to self pity, and despite his chronic pain and health issues he regularly splits enough wood to supply his stove for an entire winter all by himself. We do intend to bring a woodstove in for him so he can continue to live with the wonderful wood heat that he’s always loved.


Any donation towards building the addition, no matter how big or small, would be greatly appreciated by Richie, as well as by the small community in the hills that deeply treasures this remarkable person. It is a miracle that Richie is here with us today. Please help us to take care of him.