On Saturday September 20th at 7pm, a vehicle struck the passenger side of our father's car as he traveled home from a backyard BBQ. The rest of the details of the accident, the loss of his wife, Beverly, are all public knowledge.

But our story doesn't begin until the following morning. Our father's phone was lost in the accident and he was unable to reach his children. Daniel woke up Sunday morning to find that state troopers had been on his front stoop in the middle of the night. He tried to contact his parents, traveled to their home in Bangor to find it empty. And then began reaching out to friends, family, and the police. It was a state trooper that returned to his home to finally deliver the news.

Daniel lost his mother that Saturday. But he didn't find out until Sunday morning at 9:15am when he finally received news of the accident and it's devastating impact. The 3 of us, Daniel, Vivian, Matthew, rushed to the hospital where we were told that our father was sitting in critical care. We found out that he already knew he had lost his wife, that he had a severe neck injury and brain bleeding on top of a broken rib.

As this story is typed it is Tuesday September 23rd at about noon. The 3 of us wait with our closest family and friends supporting us while our father is operated on. He needs a plate and rod attached to his spine in order to hold his head so that his damaged neck does not cause further injury. In the past few days we have been with him as he struggles to swallow ice chips or to speak.

The surgery will leave him with limited ability to turn, raise, or lower his head. We're told that if all goes well he may be able to come home and stay with Daniel by early next week. Getting us through the first of our tragedies so that we can begin working through the second. The burial of his wife of 28 years.

There is no plot, no will, nothing planned. She was taken from all of us suddenly and unexpectedly. We've been here at the hospital for 3 days in a row, working with insurance companies, police officers, and funeral homes to try to arrange as much as we can while our father hopefully recovers.

We have one wish, one ask to all of you. Please help our father to afford the funeral that his wife deserves. We've collected the details to make sure that our ask is honest and believe that it will cost about $25k. That's to cover a casket, transport, flowers, and two plots next to each other so that one day he can be with her again. We don't know what medical costs he faces after this is over so we can't put a number to that nor are we trying to ask for more than is fair. He will have enough challenges to face in the coming weeks, months, and years. We hope that in this ask we can at least help him with this.