On May 26th, Memorial Day, our lives changed forever. I was home in northern Indiana, visiting my parents for the weekend, when my dad flung open my bedroom door at 7AM and screamed, “Go see if you can help your mom in the garage.” I flew out of bed and sprinted downstairs. I found my mom curled on the steps, unresponsive. We called 9-1-1, and from there everything moved in slow motion. In the Goshen Hospital E.R., the doctor told us there was a tremendous amount of blood in her brain. She had suffered, from what we later found out, the worst grade of a ruptured brain aneurysm. She needed airlifted to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne. On the drive to Fort Wayne, the only word to describe how I felt is “numb.”
Our mom is the hardest working, most selfless woman we know. Growing up, she worked 7 days a week – weekdays as a Middle School librarian and weekends at Kroger. This was all to help give her girls the best life possible. Up until Memorial Day, our mom still loved working at Kroger at the age of 64. Through work, she volunteered on several committees, one of which gave her the opportunity to manage their fundraisers, which she loved. And every Tuesday, Senior Citizen Day, she’d have a story about somebody’s determination or positive spirit. She even had the privilege of being on one of Kroger’s advertising billboards. We tell her she’s a celebrity. In fact, she was in the garage on Memorial Day because she was getting ready to leave for work.
From arriving in Fort Wayne and hearing she had a 1% chance of survival to her squeezing our hands two weeks later when we said, “We love you,” my sister, dad, and I have been faced the biggest roller coaster of our lives. We’ve witnessed miracles and heartache. Smiles and tears. From feeling ecstatic after she squeezed our hands…. to defeated by the weeks of immobility that followed… and back to her wiggling her fingers on July 17th, I don’t think anyone could have prepared us for the ups and downs we’ve gone through.
Because the brain’s such a powerful machine, and everyone is so different, the doctors haven’t been able to give us much of a timeline for recovery or a prognosis for how much she’ll be able to heal. All they can really tell us is that it’s going to be a very long road. Our mom has worked her entire life…really, really hard. But unfortunately, in America, this doesn’t mean much, even with good insurance. After a $37,000 helicopter ride, which has been denied by insurance, any uncovered hospital bills, and now nursing home care for an indefinite amount of time, only of which 2 months have the potential to be covered, we’re so scared this is going to cripple our parents financially. It is with the most humble of hearts we turn to friends and family in hopes of alleviating part of this financial stress so we can focus on treatment and healing. Your thoughts, prayers and generous donations are sincerely appreciated.
Our mom is the hardest working, most selfless woman we know. Growing up, she worked 7 days a week – weekdays as a Middle School librarian and weekends at Kroger. This was all to help give her girls the best life possible. Up until Memorial Day, our mom still loved working at Kroger at the age of 64. Through work, she volunteered on several committees, one of which gave her the opportunity to manage their fundraisers, which she loved. And every Tuesday, Senior Citizen Day, she’d have a story about somebody’s determination or positive spirit. She even had the privilege of being on one of Kroger’s advertising billboards. We tell her she’s a celebrity. In fact, she was in the garage on Memorial Day because she was getting ready to leave for work.
From arriving in Fort Wayne and hearing she had a 1% chance of survival to her squeezing our hands two weeks later when we said, “We love you,” my sister, dad, and I have been faced the biggest roller coaster of our lives. We’ve witnessed miracles and heartache. Smiles and tears. From feeling ecstatic after she squeezed our hands…. to defeated by the weeks of immobility that followed… and back to her wiggling her fingers on July 17th, I don’t think anyone could have prepared us for the ups and downs we’ve gone through.
Because the brain’s such a powerful machine, and everyone is so different, the doctors haven’t been able to give us much of a timeline for recovery or a prognosis for how much she’ll be able to heal. All they can really tell us is that it’s going to be a very long road. Our mom has worked her entire life…really, really hard. But unfortunately, in America, this doesn’t mean much, even with good insurance. After a $37,000 helicopter ride, which has been denied by insurance, any uncovered hospital bills, and now nursing home care for an indefinite amount of time, only of which 2 months have the potential to be covered, we’re so scared this is going to cripple our parents financially. It is with the most humble of hearts we turn to friends and family in hopes of alleviating part of this financial stress so we can focus on treatment and healing. Your thoughts, prayers and generous donations are sincerely appreciated.