It’s Laina again. I’m starting another GoFundMe for Lia. As you can imagine, costs are going up, her income isn’t changing, and she’s going to be moving to a better place soon!

Let me catch you up…

In 2021, my dear old friend Lia Chapman had a stroke. A bad one. As a result, she is not able to support herself and needs some daily assistance. She can walk and move pretty well, though her feet hurt pretty bad so she can't really go far. She’s had some loss of cognition and suffers from Expressive Aphasia, a condition that makes it very hard to express herself. She can think of the right concepts in her mind, but the trip from her brain to her mouth often changes the words or she’s unable to find words at all. It’s very frustrating and requires a lot of patience on everyone’s part.

Naturally, this has been a very hard time for her. Since her mother passed away a few months after the stroke, Lia was very much on her own. I was able to step in and help establish an income through Social Security, and I was able to keep her housed. PS, I’m doing all of this from another state. Luckily, a few of you have checked in from time to time which has made all the difference. In fact lately, we've been talking about the concept of a chosen family and how those members can often be even more reliable and loving than our given families. She is really learning to embrace that concept and trust in others just a little bit more.

In the early days, we tried several assisted living facilities, all of which didn’t really understand her needs. They tried to warehouse her and when she expressed her frustrations the only way she could, she was drugged and labeled a “behavioral problem.” In the end, Lia’s frustrations led to serious confrontations and eventually hospitalization.

But the hospital took her off of those awful medications, stabilized her, and sent her to live at Torrance Care Center, a skilled nursing center where she has lived for the last year and a half.

TCC has managed to do what none of the other places even attempted. They understood her true needs and welcomed her as an adult with a mind and a life, not a body to be managed. She has definitely improved there. Especially her emotions.

But as grateful as I am for their care of Lia, it is time for Lia to move on. TCC is a hospital style environment and is no longer appropriate as long term housing. She has grown and healed as much as she can there, and now it’s time to move someplace where she can build a life.

She has chosen a new assisted living facility, and I am hopeful that they will embrace her need to build a life there. I’ve been very clear that she needs to be able to look forward to the future, not just wait to die. So far, they seem to understand the concept. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, we are in the process of securing a waiver that will make this (or any) facility affordable. Their usual cost is around $5k a month, but with the waiver, it will be closer to $1650 a month to Lia. This is actually the same “share of cost” she currently pays at TCC. A recent raise after paying about $1300 a month for the last few years.

This is where we get to the point. Lia’s income is just over $1800 a month. After her share of cost, she will not have enough left over to pay her phone and storage bills, let alone to have any spending money for clothes, hair maintenance or small comforts.

It's just not an income that any American can make work. I've done a really good job at saving money for her, keeping her finances up to date and in the black, enough to weather the recent increases. But that savings is about to run out and Lia soon won't be able to keep her head above water.

So I’m asking for donations. She deserves a chance to rebuild her life and I think she has enough people in the world who care to help her reach that goal.

And since I have you here, I'm just going to go ahead and dream about how great it would be to have enough money to just enroll her in some group stroke treatment programs. Medical or for fun, as long as she has something to look forward to.

Or if her friends, when in the neighborhood, took her out for a coffee or a trip to Walmart, or a show. And I really wish someone could find a choir for her to join that would help with rides.

I wish Lia life. I live far away and I'm managing to keep her housed. Our friend Wendie Appel is the boots on the ground and visits a few times a month. None of this would be possible without her help. But I want more for her.

If you can help her out, please do. Cash or recommendations. It would mean so much.

Thank you.