Support a Veteran and Nurse in Urgent Need

We are a senior couple who are losing our home because the owner has decided to sell it. We've rented the house for eight years and have always paid the rent on time and have never caused any disturbances or other issues.

The owner's desire to sell the house is not a problem, of course, as he has every right to sell what he owns, whenever he wants. We understand that.

What IS a problem is that the owner expected us to vacate a house in which we have lived for eight years, in the middle of the month, with only a few days' notice.

This was a physical impossibility for us, and there is simply no way that we could comply. The owner reluctantly agreed to an extension, but we must be out of the house before the end of June.

I'm 75 and a long-time (42 years) registered nurse who spent my career working first with children at a community hospital in Connecticut, and then with children and adolescents in Connecticut, Alaska, and Virginia. I loved every minute of my work.

Two years ago, I lost the ability to walk, and my primary physician diagnosed me with a movement disorder (she opined ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, without doing any testing).

Unfortunately, for a myriad of reasons, I've not been able to see a neurologist/movement specialist in the area where we currently live (eastern North Carolina) for a proper diagnosis. That's the main reason we want to relocate.

In addition to my inability to walk, my right hand is contracted and I have issues with both shoulders and arms. I have congestive heart failure and chronic kidney disease, two compression fractures in my lower back, two herniated discs in my neck (that I received when a teenage patient assaulted me), and a voice disorder called spasmodic dysphonia. I was hospitalized five times during 2024 for more than a week each time, and following my hospitalization on December 23, 2024, I was transferred to a nursing home on January 16 for rehab, where I remained until last Friday when I was transferred to a local hospital with intractable vomiting and nausea.

In the five months that I've been at the nursing home, I've had little improvement in either my strength or in my mobility. I've not had a hot meal in those five months (everything is served either cold or barely lukewarm), but I have had severe diarrhea on 24 separate days, profuse vomiting on three separate days, five urinary tract infections (UTIs), and I was taken by ambulance to the emergency room three times (and admitted to the hospital for more than a week on all three occasions) with gastrointestinal issues.

My Medicare coverage for the nursing home has been exhausted and I no longer require hospital-level care. Without a home to return to, my discharge plan might very well be the street, where I surely won't survive.

My husband is 82 and an Air Force Security Services veteran (A20351-5 for those of you who are insiders) and long-time freelance contract computer programmer. He worked in Vietnam for more than three years (from early 1967 to 1970) as a DOD civilian.

During 2024, he had a heart attack, a stroke, a TIA, bilateral pneumonia, and Covid, Covid, Covid (yes, three times, despite receiving all the recommended vaccinations and boosters), and emphysematous gastritis (look that last one up!). He also has ADHD and active PTSD since leaving the military.

It's clear that we're unable to move out of the house we've occupied for eight years without assistance. We need to find an apartment in (preferably) the Hartford, Connecticut, area or Baltimore, Maryland. Connecticut is my home and Baltimore has Johns Hopkins Hospital, which, in addition to being a world-class institution, is where I've twice been a patient previously.

We desperately need help in packing and moving our belongings. The packing and moving are what we hope to raise funds for, as it can be quite expensive to hire people to perform those functions, and both packing and moving our belongings are things we're unable to do by ourselves.

In 2008, I wrote and published a non-fiction book titled The Forgotten Future: Adolescents in Crisis about my work with children and adolescents at inpatient behavioral health facilities in Connecticut, Alaska, and Virginia. I'll be happy to send an autographed copy for any donation of $50 or more to our GoFundMe campaign. After we get settled in our new apartment, I plan to continue working on two non-fiction works-in-progress: Women Who Prey (about female sex offenders) and Travesty: The State of Elder Care in America (the title speaks for itself).

We're grateful that you've taken the time to read our story, and please know that we'll be eternally grateful for every donation, no matter how small. We understand that everyone is struggling to stay afloat these days, but we have no choice but to ask others for help. Your decision to help us in our time of need speaks volumes about your kindness and your character and about the type of country the United States is, and always has been.

We humbly thank you so very, very much.