A humble request for a proud family
Donation protected
I had started this fundraiser a while back for a trip for my mom to visit my brother and his family while she was still able to travel that distance. That time has passed unfortunately. A lot has happened since then.
3 months ago, my father fell and broke the ball socket in his hip. The surgery was a success but he is now confined to a wheelchair. Anyone who knows my father will have some idea of what a strong, resilient man like that is going through now that he has to rely on myself for just about everything. His pride has taken a hit but with the recent developments in our family, his bank account has taken the biggest hit.
My mother is getting progressively worse day by day. She spends most of her time confined to her bed. We recently found out that now her heart is damaged. She has stage 4 congenital heart failure. The chemo and the handful of medications she takes everyday has taken a toll on her body. While she remains in good spirits for the most part, her depression is increasing. And the doctor's have been telling her for the last year that she is to be under NO stress if possible as stress will dramatically increase the health issues she already has. While we managed to keep the stress under control for the majority of the time, life happened again and now we're facing a whole new set of difficulties.
2 weeks ago I was diagnosed with primary billiary cirrhosis, an autoimmune disease. I had been losing a drastic amount of weight without any dietary changes and I became concerned. After multitudes of tests, the diagnosis came back. I am okay for now. The worst case scenarios are a liver transplant (not a concern at this time) should my liver deteriorate rapidly or an increase in the chances of getting liver cancer. But I am on treatments and medications and am doing fine. My energy levels are a bit depleted but it's nothing I can't handle. The only real issue with my illness is the stress it's causing my family, mainly my mother, because I am their sole caretaker. I care for both of my parents and both of my children full time. I receive no financial help for this and I am unable to work as a result. I unfortunately do not have medical insurance right now (that is in the process of being challenged with the state) so the out of pocket expenses are getting a bit difficult to handle. Add in the expenses for both of my parents' medical issues and the bills keep multiplying while the resources continue to dwindle.
As if life wasn't difficult enough for us, last week our central air/heat unit failed. It is over 20 years old and cannot be repaired. A new unit, with rebates and discounts, will be approximately $7000, money we do not have. My mother has a medical necessity for air conditioning but there are no programs that will take that into consideration for an entire new unit. The main goal for the last few months has been to sell the house. That way, they aren't under constant stress of having a home that is now too much for them to take care of. And it would solve just about all of their financial problems. However, the catch is that without a central unit and several other problems fixed first (the deck is collapsing, the wiring in the home which hasn't been upgraded or repaired in over 15 years is a complete nightmare - half of the wiring and outlets in the house work and the other half do not, the ceilings in the hallways are starting to crack and dip, the outside lighting is old and started a fire 2 years ago in our yard...the list goes on and on), they cannot put the home on the market. Without money to fix these things, they can't sell. And without selling, they can't cover their bills. For the first time in their lives, our electricity was shut off. Thanks to a sympathetic employee, they extended our deadline to pay and turned our power back on.
My father is a proud man. If he knew I was asking for help, he would be horrified. But this goes beyond pride. This is not how an elderly couple who have been married for 47 years and raised a beautiful family should have to live the remainder of their days here on this planet. It's not always sunshine and butterflies in our home but the bottom line is that we love each other and they have always been there for me and just once, I want to be able to do this for them. I want my parents to have an opportunity to not have to spend this time fighting about finances, stressing every minute of every day about how they are going to pay for their basic needs. I don't want to see my mom in tears every day because she's worried about not being able to sell the home and finally be able to go somewhere where they don't have to worry about the electrical eventually causing a fire or the deck falling on her grandkids.
I hate asking for things. And I've been sitting on posting this for a long, long time while I exhausted every other option imaginable to be able to do something to help us out aside from "begging." This is humiliating and embarassing but we are, literally and figuratively, out of options. I spend every day researching assistance from various local and state programs, making phone call after phone call to organizations that help with these things, and unfortunately, we're at a point where the kindness of others is where we humbly lay our requests.
Thank you so much in advance for taking the time to read all of this. If you cannot help, trust me when I say I know how hard it is for everyone out there, not just us. And just reading this was kindness that we appreciate.
Much love and blessings in abundance to all of you, our friends. <3
3 months ago, my father fell and broke the ball socket in his hip. The surgery was a success but he is now confined to a wheelchair. Anyone who knows my father will have some idea of what a strong, resilient man like that is going through now that he has to rely on myself for just about everything. His pride has taken a hit but with the recent developments in our family, his bank account has taken the biggest hit.
My mother is getting progressively worse day by day. She spends most of her time confined to her bed. We recently found out that now her heart is damaged. She has stage 4 congenital heart failure. The chemo and the handful of medications she takes everyday has taken a toll on her body. While she remains in good spirits for the most part, her depression is increasing. And the doctor's have been telling her for the last year that she is to be under NO stress if possible as stress will dramatically increase the health issues she already has. While we managed to keep the stress under control for the majority of the time, life happened again and now we're facing a whole new set of difficulties.
2 weeks ago I was diagnosed with primary billiary cirrhosis, an autoimmune disease. I had been losing a drastic amount of weight without any dietary changes and I became concerned. After multitudes of tests, the diagnosis came back. I am okay for now. The worst case scenarios are a liver transplant (not a concern at this time) should my liver deteriorate rapidly or an increase in the chances of getting liver cancer. But I am on treatments and medications and am doing fine. My energy levels are a bit depleted but it's nothing I can't handle. The only real issue with my illness is the stress it's causing my family, mainly my mother, because I am their sole caretaker. I care for both of my parents and both of my children full time. I receive no financial help for this and I am unable to work as a result. I unfortunately do not have medical insurance right now (that is in the process of being challenged with the state) so the out of pocket expenses are getting a bit difficult to handle. Add in the expenses for both of my parents' medical issues and the bills keep multiplying while the resources continue to dwindle.
As if life wasn't difficult enough for us, last week our central air/heat unit failed. It is over 20 years old and cannot be repaired. A new unit, with rebates and discounts, will be approximately $7000, money we do not have. My mother has a medical necessity for air conditioning but there are no programs that will take that into consideration for an entire new unit. The main goal for the last few months has been to sell the house. That way, they aren't under constant stress of having a home that is now too much for them to take care of. And it would solve just about all of their financial problems. However, the catch is that without a central unit and several other problems fixed first (the deck is collapsing, the wiring in the home which hasn't been upgraded or repaired in over 15 years is a complete nightmare - half of the wiring and outlets in the house work and the other half do not, the ceilings in the hallways are starting to crack and dip, the outside lighting is old and started a fire 2 years ago in our yard...the list goes on and on), they cannot put the home on the market. Without money to fix these things, they can't sell. And without selling, they can't cover their bills. For the first time in their lives, our electricity was shut off. Thanks to a sympathetic employee, they extended our deadline to pay and turned our power back on.
My father is a proud man. If he knew I was asking for help, he would be horrified. But this goes beyond pride. This is not how an elderly couple who have been married for 47 years and raised a beautiful family should have to live the remainder of their days here on this planet. It's not always sunshine and butterflies in our home but the bottom line is that we love each other and they have always been there for me and just once, I want to be able to do this for them. I want my parents to have an opportunity to not have to spend this time fighting about finances, stressing every minute of every day about how they are going to pay for their basic needs. I don't want to see my mom in tears every day because she's worried about not being able to sell the home and finally be able to go somewhere where they don't have to worry about the electrical eventually causing a fire or the deck falling on her grandkids.
I hate asking for things. And I've been sitting on posting this for a long, long time while I exhausted every other option imaginable to be able to do something to help us out aside from "begging." This is humiliating and embarassing but we are, literally and figuratively, out of options. I spend every day researching assistance from various local and state programs, making phone call after phone call to organizations that help with these things, and unfortunately, we're at a point where the kindness of others is where we humbly lay our requests.
Thank you so much in advance for taking the time to read all of this. If you cannot help, trust me when I say I know how hard it is for everyone out there, not just us. And just reading this was kindness that we appreciate.
Much love and blessings in abundance to all of you, our friends. <3
Organizer
Louanne Schroeder
Organizer
Grass Valley, CA