Hi Everyone! We are Elizabeth Callegan (Sara's friend/old neighbor) and Haley Mann (Sara's cousin). If you have been following Sara's Story, you know just how hard Sara has been working and how far she’s come since her battle with Encephalitis. You might also know that Geoff has been the most positive and encouraging support system throughout this entire journey. We've ALL been wanting to do something to help the Morthland Family, so we have started a GoFundMe account (...against Geoff's protests!) on their behalf.

With summer coming to an end and the start of a new school year approaching, it is nearing time for Sara and Geoff’s mothers to transition back to their own homes and for the Morthland Family to find a “new normal” going forward. To initiate this transition process, Geoff has hired an Au Pair to help them take care of the girls as Sara continues to recover. The Au Pair’s name is Natalia, and she is a civil engineer from Colombia. She will be arriving on August 17th.

Our initial goal is to raise $20,000 to help cover the cost of the Au Pair for a 12-month period. Of course, the Morthland Family will have many other expenses going forward, such as Sara’s continued therapy sessions and the hiring of a Functional Home Aide. So, we are hoping to exceed our goal amount!

We know that this is just a bump in the road and that, with time, Sara will get back to 100%! Any amount that you can donate will help to lighten the load for the Morthland Family so that Sara can get the help she needs in her everyday life as she continues her therapy and recovery process in the months/years to come.

Thank you so much for donating to the Morthland Family Fundraiser!                                      

For those of you who don’t know Sara, allow us to introduce you and share a little bit of her story... This is Sara. She’s a beloved daughter and big sister. A wonderful mother to 3 precious girls (ages 8, 6, and 2). And a devoted wife of 9 years to her husband, Geoff.

During the Summer of 2020, Sara and Geoff took a huge leap of faith and moved their family from Louisiana to Texas - several hundred miles away from their family and friends. They quickly adjusted to life in their new city, made friends with their new neighbors, Geoff got settled into his new job, and the girls started their new schools.

On October 30th, after several days of a really bad headache, vomiting, and fever, Sara was admitted into the hospital. What was initially presumed to be meningitis, a lumbar puncture revealed to be Herpes Simplex Virus-1 (HSV-1) Encephalitis.

HSV-1 itself, also known as the “cold sore virus”, is extremely common and carried by 90% of the population. But contracting Encephalitis from the virus is extremely rare and carries a 70-80% mortality rate if left untreated. In simplest terms… Sara’s brain was under attack, and she was in a fight for her life.

For the next month, Sara’s brain battled the infection. During this time, she also suffered a stroke which has resulted in severe cognitive deficits. Upon waking, it was discovered that Sara had lost her memory (both short and long-term). She no longer recognized even her closest family members, couldn’t identify common/everyday objects, and she had no recollection of major events like getting married or birthing/raising her 3 beautiful girls. 37 years' worth of past memories and knowledge had essentially been erased from Sara's brain.

If you know anything about Sara though, it’s that she’s tough as nails! She was determined to work hard on her recovery and get back home to her family. On March 20th, 2021 - after 5 months of intensive inpatient rehabilitation- Sara did just that! Upon returning home, Sara continued extensive outpatient therapy for two months and is currently receiving in-home therapy. The focus is on improving Sara’s memory and object recognition as well as retraining her brain.

Sara truly works around the clock to relearn her life and, in doing so, has come such a long way from where she once was. In true Sara-fashion, she has absolutely blown away her doctors by far exceeding the expectations of their original prognosis. In a recent visit with Sara’s neurologist, he even went so far as to declare that “everything is now back on the table for Sara’s future, including driving and working again”! While this is wonderful news, Sara still has a long road of recovery ahead of her.

Prior to this incident, Sara was Wonder Woman! She worked a full-time job for a healthcare company in addition to taking care of all the household duties of cooking, cleaning, homework, running errands, and chauffeuring the kids to their extracurricular activities. She always managed to make it look so easy, too! For the past 8 months, the Morthland Family has been extremely fortunate to have had both Sara and Geoff’s mothers living with them and taking on these responsibilities while Sara has been unable to do so herself.

With summer coming to an end and the start of a new school year approaching, it is nearing time for Sara and Geoff’s mothers to transition back to their own homes and for the Morthland Family to find a “new normal” going forward. Any amount that we can raise for the Morthland Family will help to lighten their load and ensure that Sara gets the help she needs in her everyday life while she continues her recovery process in the months/years to come.

Thank you so much for donating to the Morthland Family Fundraiser!