When life seems unfair, we are often left with the adage, “Everything happens for a reason,” but sometimes those words are preposterous. In the past few weeks we’ve learned that our friend, Cristal, is very, very ill. The diagnosis is stage 4 metastatic adenocarcinoma, and with it comes a bleak prognosis. It is terminal, and though she’s doing her best to make it keep the tumors quiet, eventually they’ll have their say.

No reason can be found in this happening, but it’s a reminder–a reminder of the joy Cristal brings to life, the strength with which she faces adversity, and the inspiration she brings to everyone around her. “Everything happens for a reason,” may not be accurate, but the idea that some people are too wonderful for this world feels very true.

She is unable to work, and while Cristal should be savoring every moment, she is facing the ordinary, mundane, bullshit costs that come with being alive. Taxes, fuel for heat ,water, trash, rent, food, electric, health insurance, medical necessities on a short term disability that only pays out 60% of her income.

Our social security system is designed so that benefits will take at least five months.

So we’re asking for money, but what we’re really asking for is help taking the burdens away. We want this time to let her leave the mark of her choosing, to find the meaning in each moment, and to absorb the beautiful world she’ll eventually leave behind.

Cristal is that friend whose sense of humor makes the ugliest times liveable. With a soft voice she laughs in the face of turmoil. And though she’s still smiling, turmoil is where she’s at, and there are necessities that need to be taken care of. Your donations will go directly towards lifting the stressful nature of things that don’t matter, in hopes that she may live the rest of her life worrying only about her precious pup, Rocky, and soaking up as much time as she can in the places and with the people that make her feel at home. Please help us make it happen. I can assure you, Cristal is a worthy investment.