The bravest and sweetest lady I know, my mom Karen

Hi, I'm Jeremy Freedman. The lovely lady pictured next to me is my mom, Karen. I affectionately often refer to her as "KF." A retired beloved art professor with 45+ years of teaching experience, she tripped and fell while crossing the street in June 2018. She hit her head on a steel metal plate, causing a traumatic brain injury (see the third small photo below taken four days after her fall illustrating the severe bruising). Eleven days after the initial contact, she had to be rushed to the hospital where emergency surgery for a brain bleed saved her life. She spent three long weeks in intensive care, (as illustrated by the middle small photo). This injury changed her life, and mine, forever. Now she has very severe dementia, and it is only getting worse. It is extremely scary and heartbreaking. I have had to devote much of my time to taking care of her since her traumatic brain injury 7 years ago. She has also suffered from numerous other injuries, including, but not limited to, a broken shoulder in 2014 resulting from another fall and a broken pelvis suffered in September 2018 when a delivery bike going the wrong way pummeled into her while she was crossing the street. This occurred just less than two months after her release from the hospital's ICU in July. She was an amazing dedicated trooper and somehow remarkably resumed teaching in-person with a broken pelvis (and feeling the effects of the brain injury) after only missing two or three classes following the bike collision. I helped her get to and from school with a wheelchair and a walker several times during her recovery.

My father passed away in October 2023 after several years of battling multi-faceted illness. Kidney cancer and spine surgery were just part of the equation, and his mobility was greatly limited. I sacrificed my own career aspirations to take care of him on a daily basis for years.

We are fundraising to help cover our array of bills, which are piling up much faster than we can handle. All donations, both large and small, would be welcomed.