Sharon Presley

I just want to update this story in case people are coming to the fundraiser and not seeing the updates. Right at this moment, we don't think new donations are needed, but we'll keep it open in case that changes.

Below are the events that precipitated this fundraiser - health issues and a landlord who wanted them out. Due to their health issues, neither Sharon nor her partner Art were able to cope with all of that, and they had no relatives or friends who lived close by. We all have been communicating from thousands of miles away. And Sharon kept needing to go into the hospital, mostly because of pain issues I believe, but all year she had also been dealing with some kind of extreme fatigue. She didn't seem to know what was wrong with her overall, although she did have scoliosis, and her hips were really bothering her. I think that was the pain issue. Because she was in the hospital most of the time since early June, she wasn't able to cope with finding new housing, and Art wasn't able to either - I think due to his own health issues and age. They did end up being evicted, with Sharon staying in the hospital and Art going to a pay-by-the-week motel.

In the hospital, it was easy to stay in touch with Sharon, but once she moved to the nursing home, it's been much more difficult. As far as we can tell, because they weren't able to arrange services, they may have lost most of their belongings. They did lose their cats. Art has a daughter on the East Coast who has tried to help, but it seems like she only gets scatterings of information. What she last told me was that they didn't have much hope of Sharon coming home, and what Sharon last told me was that she didn't seem to be getting better, but she's trying to because she'd really like to be home with Art again. From what I understand, Art seems to be safe right now and does have access to their bank accounts so he can pay for gas and food and housing, and I understand he does visit Sharon.

With this in mind, we're just trying to help her cope with her situation. We'd love people to send cards to her at Lodi Nursing & Rehabilitation, 1334 S Ham Lane, Lodi, CA 95242. We're using funds toward getting her a cellular phone and service so she can talk to her friends and hopefully regain some hope, as well as some items the nursing home suggested, because she doesn't have any personal items with her at all. This will include clothing items, some things to make her more comfortable, some treats, and possibly a tablet or some other device she can use to get online and be more able to interact. When we were last able to speak with her, she wasn't very talkative at all, very unlike herself, and we fear this is because she's isolated and possibly losing hope. We really want to combat that depression, and your cards could really help.

Original:

Sharon needs to find housing quickly. She and her partner Art had a series of health challenges and Sharon especially has been in and out of the hospital all year. She has become extremely weak and has had a lot of pain.

The health crises have made it difficult for either Sharon or Art to deal with anything else and ultimately this led them to receive an eviction notice from their apartment in Amador County, California, for the end of this month. They need to find a place quickly and they’ll need to pay someone to move them and do the necessary cleaning. Neither of them are physically strong enough right now to do this themselves and they live in a rural area far from any friends or relatives. My understanding is that the landlord is aware of their physical limitations and of the fact that Sharon has been in the hospital and the inpatient physiotherapy center this whole time (a social worker intervened and explained everything) but is still insisting on them vacating.

We weren’t entirely sure how much to try to raise in this fundraiser because we don’t want to strain people’s ability to give, but there will be a rental deposit, moving company, and other things related to moving which could include a storage unit. Sharon just got home from the center where she was doing physiotherapy so as she finds out more, we might adjust the goal.