Friends in need

One of our friends is in a bad situation. He had colon cancer and had to have part of his intestine removed and had a colostomy. He recently had the bag removed and got reattached and was just getting around when they got the news they were being evicted. They have to be out by July 1st.

He is in his 70's and in no way can work. His SS don't add up to much and his wife works part time stocking greeting cards and spices at a local store. She is not quite old enough for SS yet and even if she was, it still would not be enough. They lost all their money in the stock market crash in the early 2000's. He was in the Navy but didn't retire from it so the only benefit he gets is medical...if he goes to one of their hospitals. He does have medicare and supplemental BCBS insurance so that is a huge blessing. She said if they can't pay anything else, they pay that. Up till recently they pretty much earned a living by repairing hot air balloons, doing annuals in their basement and giving balloon rides and tether rides at parties...people don't have elaborate birthday parties any more. Business has dropped off and he has not been able to fly for a while now. She still does the occasional small repair or annual. She can't take on any big jobs with out his help and she can't have just anyone help. There are regulations involved. You have to know what you are doing.

I had stopped over there last week to help her drain the water bed and he looked like he was hit by a MAC truck. He was trying to help pack and lost his balance and fell. He refused to go to the hospital and was using a cane to get around.

We stopped over there on Friday to see if we could help pack or SOMETHING! She was just pulling in the driveway. She said she had just got home from the hospital. He had gotten real bad that morning...almost a week after the fall. He refused an ambulance so she had to get the office chair next to the bed and get him into that and then she wheeled him to the garage and lined up his weight bench to the steps to slide him out next to the car, then she helped him into the car. It turns out he fractured his hip and his knee. They had him in surgery on Saturday to put pins and hardware in both places to hold him together.

We called all of our friends and asked for help in moving them this coming weekend. We have a pretty good bunch of friends. We have a crew lined up and we are donating a couple pizzas, water and pop for the cause. We are taking their stuff to storage and from there they will have an auction as soon as they can get it arranged.

Our friend who was over Saturday has an apartment building and has a vacant unit. He told them he will rent to them cheap on a monthly bases till they find a place. He is giving it to them for the bare minimum with no profit coming from that unit. Tomorrow, I am taking her over there to look at it and if she takes it, I will be there most of the week cleaning and painting so he doesn't have an expense for that.

Rich's daughter called last night and asked me to go through our pix and make copies so she can put together a scrap book for her brother for his 30th B-day...which is coming real soon...so I have to have them done by the end of the week so she has time to put it together. Between School, painting, cleaning and pix, I am going to be one busy bee. Hope I have the energy for it. I think I will get a little help from above on this one. I'll need it!