Wonder's Covid Recovery Fund

Wonder's Covid Fundraiser, Round Two: Birthday Boogaloo 


Hi! I'm Wonder Truly: Friendly neighborhood singer, Twitch streamer, collaborator, cat fan, and, just lately, Your Friend With Long Covid. If you're reading this, it's either because we're friends or because one of my phenomenal, world-changing friends sent you my way.

This Gofundme is the result of the Twitch music family organizing a jaw-dropping fundraising effort back in November. The original goal was $800, and in the span of a month the gofundme hit $10,000. Though our expenses shot up due to new dietary & mobility accommodations, the generosity of the community has covered this and more in the months since. Thanks to this fund, we were able to invest in a top-quality water filter for our home so we could have drinking water from the sink instead of spending over $100 every month having water delivered. The fund paid off the last of my credit accounts, which means fewer monthly payments. I never could have done this on my own. Being able to pay off debt instead of accruing more in an ongoing health emergency is a gift and privilege I don't take lightly. 

 

Here is my situation: I've had long covid since Halloween. I am not able to work. I'm a full-time musician, a singer & an asthmatic. Despite being fully vaxxed and socially isolated, I have it and it's bad. I am tended by my gorgeous boyfriend who brings me meals when I'm too tired to walk to the kitchen, which is often. My AMAZING friends and family, after supporting me from afar, are now rallying to do some fundraising on my behalf. I...do not have words to express my gratitude. But it is big, it is profound, and I am so, so, so thankful for this community.

 

I have lost nearly five months of income. Doctors tell me it could be another six months before I start seeing actual recovery from these symptoms. As someone who has been self-employed since 2014, this is a very, very scary thing to hear. A great deal of being sick is being scared, and yet for that darkness there is the stubborn light of people who love me doing everything possible to keep me happy and alive on this earth. I am beyond blessed to have people supporting me in my weakest moments.

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Whether you're someone I've known and loved from the beginning, or somebody who clicked out of curiosity, thank you for hearing me. If you have the means to contribute, every single dollar means more than you know. Every Share makes a difference. Every heartfelt message brings me joy, even if I am too tired to respond to more than a few at a time.

 

Before October 31st, my definition of "sick" was, "I'm chugging Dayquil but can sorta still do my job and my life." November changed that. My fresh, wise definition is now: "I am in a Brontë novel, bedridden and vacant, lost to the world while my poor lover roams the moors at night." Most days, I am too tired and too foggy to even read pulpy YA novels. I live in my bed. It is an effort to change into clean clothes, and showering is a Herculean feat. My whole body is trembling as I write this.

 

My partner works full time at a job he took when I lost all my gigs at the start of quarantine in 2020. He's been covering way more than his share of our living expenses; as my unemployment trickled into a draught at the end of summer, he took over even more of what I had been able to pay for prior: groceries, car maintenance, little bills here and there. I have student loans and a car payment, and the regular monthly miscellany one accrues to Have A Life. While we are secure in the roof over our heads and the food in our fridge, I know many of you reading this know intimately how it feels having the floor suddenly drop out beneath you. Unexpected expenses, job loss, your partner's job loss, accidents, surprise vet bills: I know you know. I don't have to explain that it is awful to be here, suddenly unable to work, not able to fix this myself.

 

I know you know how teeth-gnashingly uncomfortable it is to ask for help in times like this. I've been fundraising since 2013! You'd think I'd be better at it by now. Yet it turns out that when you have a fantastic community who willingly give of themselves to help you over and over again, you become more dismayed when once again, it's not you who's able to do the giving, the supporting, the rescuing. If there's one thing life is teaching me, though, it's how to get cozy in being uncomfortable. And I know how powerful it is when someone trusts me enough to ask me for a favor, for help only I can give. I have to trust that here, now, we are being given an opportunity to grow closer together, and stronger for it. That there is alchemy in vulnerability, even when I don't have any agency over this weakness.

 

Whoever you are, wherever you are. Thank you for finding this. Thank you for reading. Your time and your energy are precious. Whether you can contribute to the financial goal of this fundraiser or not, you are so valuable and worthy of being able to hold your head high wherever you go. As unlikely as it is while the world falls apart around us, I hope this finds you well.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Be safe. Wear your mask. I love you.