Our 77-year-old Papa, Deacon Dennis Morales, is a phenomenal man who has touched many lives and hearts over his years on Earth. Papa has endured a rare degenerative and progressive neuromuscular disease, known as Primary Lateral Sclerosis (PLS), for over 20 years, the loss of his beloved wife, Martha, to cancer, and is now struggling with advancing symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

Papa currently lives independently in a retirement community facility in Aurora, Colorado. The weekend of November 15th, 16th and 17th, Papa had a few serious falls. On the 17th, our sister Monica, went to check in on Papa and found him on the floor of his bathroom where he could not get up on his own and, even though his bathroom is equipped with a help pull-cord, was unable to ask for help. This fall resulted in an Emergency Medical Services call and visit to the hospital emergency department. It was discovered that Papa has two broken vertebrae in his spine. These breaks were deemed non-acute so the concern is that he broke these bones sometime before these recent falls without knowledge.

After two nights in the hospital, Papa was transferred to a physical rehabilitation center, where he has been since the 20th of November. Papa's strength is returning however, definitely not to baseline and he has had another 2 falls while in rehab. The greatest concern at this time is that Papa's Alzheimer's symptoms have dramatically increased over these past few weeks, resulting in the medically guided family decision that Papa cannot safely live independently anymore. Papa is going to need round-the-clock assistance/care once he is discharged from rehabilitation, which is currently projected to be Dec. 5th.

Unfortunately, round-the-clock professional care is extremely costly, anywhere from $3500-$5000 weekly. Our family is in need of monetary support in order to assure that Dennis can safely return home and receive the care he needs until we are able to secure a more permanent care facility for him.

The Morales/Finan/Cavender/Morales-Egizi/Ellem families greatly appreciate any support our loving community can offer.

We also ask that if anyone is able to visit Papa, even for a 30-minute visit, please reach out directly to one of us in the family to coordinate.