Early in the morning, January 11th, we lost a very special 4 year old boy. I'm only his daycare provider, but this family and I crossed all boundaries of daycare professionalism. I love this little stinker as if he really were my own son.

 

He started daycare with me when he was 8 weeks old. He would have been 5 in a few weeks. Zachy was an energetic, sweet, silly, funny, weird little guy who knew how to push all my buttons - the good and the bad!!! He loved babies, animals, farming, tools, baseball, dinosaurs.... the list goes on and on, he was an exuberant and joyful person with a big heart.

 

We had a few "close contacts" of covid at daycare last week, but when I said goodbye to Zachy on Friday he had no symptoms of any illness. Saturday he started a bit of a cough, (no surprise with all the covid exposures) Sunday night/early Monday morning Dad and Stepmom took him to the ER because he was having trouble breathing. He was diagnosed with both covid and croup. Monday during the day he seemed to be his normal self, plus a cough. That night/early Tuesday morning, the illnesses took over.

 

I googled average costs of the expenses the family is facing, so the amount is just a guess. On top of these expenses, they're also missing work and grieving heavily. Anything you can offer would be an enormous gift to them.

 

Thank you so very much for your time.

*** GFM said I have to add this so that the family is able to access donations
*** I am not the intended recipient of the funds. I am a friend of the family and intend the balance to be recieved by Zachary's father, Josh in order to offset the burden of costs and lost wages.