Sometimes life is not fair and gives us more than we can handle. I write this letter on behalf of a very dear friend and longtime coworker who is going through some very tough times and could use our help and support. This friend is a special guy who everyone loves and unfortunately has experienced more challenges and misfortune in one year than anyone should ever have to endure. Ruben Meraz and his family have had a very heartbreaking year beginning with his wife Maria’s cancer diagnosis, followed by his son Noel being an innocent victim in a shooting incident and eventually Ruben himself suffering a Stroke in March that has left him unable to work and provide for his family. Ruben has been blessed to have a loving family that has been there for him and helped to take care of them as they all try and get back to health. Through months of physical therapy, Ruben is slowly regaining his strength and his condition is steadily improving. Get well soon Ruby we need back here. His son Noel’s accident left him unable to walk and perform a lot of everyday functions. Noel continues his physical therapy and is making progress on his long road to recovery. Maria, on the other hand, is suffering through her cancer and struggling with the day to day.  This has been an emotional struggle for Ruben and his family and we send our thoughts and prayers for Maria’s recovery and everyone to get back to a normal healthy life.

Over the past five months, I reach out to Ruben every week to check on him and ask how I can help because I can’t even imagine how they are managing all this misfortune. Ruben being the stud that he is ends every conversation with Thank you, Mark,  we appreciate it but we are ok.  Ruben is a very proud man who keeps his personal troubles to himself and asking for help is not part of his makeup. I recently contacted Ruben and unlike all my previous calls, Ruben began to share some of their personal struggles which included him letting me know that they have yet to receive their Disability benefits and they have not seen any funds since he went into the hospital. He explained to me that SSI is giving them the runaround, his family has been calling on his behalf fighting through the bureaucracy of this wonderful government-run agency. Financially they have survived on their savings but Maria has not been able to work this last year and Ruben has been out for 5 months and only with the support of their family have they survived. So we want to do our part and help them to relieve some of this burden.

 
We would like to ask for your generosity and contribution to Ruben and the Meraz family to help cover their day to day expenses as well as the mounting medical expenses.