Support Gloria's Stroke Recovery Journey

This is Gloria.

A single mother of three. She was going to school for her teaching license while working full-time as a nurse, raising two kids, and pregnant with her third. As the years passed, she began teaching for the Public School System in Milwaukee’s South Side as a bilingual split-class teacher. Working there for over thirty years, she’s dedicated her life to guiding, protecting, and educating this Wisconsin city’s youth at work and at home.

Gloria has mentored so many of her students over the years, sometimes in difficult domestic situations, helping them find safe havens outside of their households to vent or seek shelter. She worked closely with many immigrant students to learn and master English as a second language in one school year, enabling them to not only move onto the next grade but also prepare them to excel in life after graduation.

Gloria assisted a family with navigating the stress of medical bills after their daughter, a student of Gloria at the time, was shot in the stomach in a drive-by outside of their home. She pushed undocumented students to put in their all when applying for grants, scholarships, and financial assistance programs that she found for them, helping get their future education paid for when the students' parents didn’t know if they could even afford to put these children through high school. Many of them eventually went on to get medical and business degrees, with some even becoming teachers themselves.

At home, Gloria raised her three children to be selfless, strong, kind, and patient with the world. “You never know what struggles people are going through.” Her oldest son, Esteban, was born with Hurler-Scheie syndrome, a rare illness that, even after 23 grueling surgeries in his 39 years of life, left him severely physically disabled. Gloria was her son’s dedicated caregiver until his final days when the disease finally took him in February of 2020. She taught her other son and daughter to be patient with Esteban, to be compassionate and gentle when helping him, because even though caring for him was difficult for her, “We will never know the pain he endures every day, just existing.”

The morning after Christmas Day, Gloria was parking her car in the garage after a busy morning of running errands. Quickly realizing the entire left side of her body was not responding, she tried to step out of her vehicle, falling and hitting the ground face first. She had suffered a severe stroke. Unable to move or call for help, she lay there until her daughter and youngest child came looking for her. Luckily, her daughter was awaiting her arrival back home and was able to respond quickly, finding Gloria on the ground next to her car, bleeding from her head from the fall, and was able to get her the help she needed.

This terrifying life event of having a stroke has presented immense challenges. Leaving her with no motor skills or sensation on her left side, the recovery journey will be long and demanding. To ensure her safety and comfort at home after her discharge from the hospital, she will require specialized equipment, including a wheelchair ramp for accessibility, a Sara-Steady for safe transfers, and a chair lift for navigating the stairs. These crucial adaptations will allow me (her daughter and youngest child) to take on the role of caregiver and provide the necessary care and support she needs as she embarks on this difficult path to recovery. Any contribution, no matter how small, will be deeply appreciated and will be used for all medical equipment needed for her to safely navigate her home. This will help alleviate the financial burden associated with her medical needs while she heals.

My mother is the strongest woman I know, and I am determined to help her regain her independence. I am hoping the funding to pay for her medical equipment will take some of the stress off her shoulders so she can focus all her energy on healing.