Support Kailee's Healing Journey

As many of you may know, my sister Kailee was brutally attacked and nearly murdered by a complete stranger in a random act of violence last Saturday night. She suffered a near fatal strangulation and was admitted to the ICU at UMC.

She was targeted for her kindness as her attacker posed as a young person in need of help and Kailee was the only person who agreed to help him. If you know her you know she is the kind of person who will always help others whenever she is able to do so. She would give her last dollar or the shirt off her back to a stranger without a second thought. Having that quality used to hurt her has been very difficult for her to process.

Our family is doing everything we can to support her physically, emotionally and financially but felt she could really benefit from the support of her community at this time. Something we didn’t anticipate is how an event like this changes your entire perception of the world. Your world view is absolutely shattered and you begin to spiral into a dark place where you see everyone as a potential threat and see the world as a scary place. I started this GFM because so many people have reached out to help her and asked to donate financially or food or wanted to leave kind words. I thought it would be a huge ray of light for her in this difficult time to see the good in people— to see that there are people outside our family who care about her healing and want to be there for her. Any amount helps but don’t feel obligated to donate— a share, a kind comment or a prayer all are just as meaningful. I’m hoping this will be a space where she will be able to see in a tangible way the kindness, support and generosity that still exists in the world.

This experience has been devastating for her in every single way. She has a long road to recovery and has, unfortunately, sustained brain damage in addition to the mental damage this has caused. Because of that she will need to take a couple of months off of work to heal her brain as well as recover mentally. All funds received will go to supporting her during that time and will be directly paid to her treatment (therapy, medical) rent, utilities, food as well as the massive hospital bill she will be receiving from UMC for her ICU stay and numerous brain scans.

More than anything I just want her to be able to see good and to see people rally around her.