People have been e-mailing, Facebooking, texting me asking how they can help. They're actually getting kind of pushy, so in order to satisfy you people, I'm writing this post for you. You pushy, pushy people.
First off let me say that overall, we're fine on the basics. We have eaten every day that we've wanted to eat. The kids are struggling to understand, but still growing up like kids. We still have the house. And Safeway still delivers groceries.
Thankfully our family and friends are mostly local and we have people that have worked hard to organize all kinds of help. So don't think that we're penniless, friendless, hapless and hopeless when you act on any of the suggestions below:
Cook a Meal After Surgery #14: Surgery 14--to remove the 2nd brain tumor--is pending right now, but is expected to happen sometime in April or early May. After we come back home from the hospital, Anne-Marie will be mostly resting in bed for a month. It's been a pretty helpful thing for people to bring meals. Sometimes Anne-Marie is on a non-solid diet due to treatments and sometimes not. We have a good friend that has helped us organize all the details. Email me here or contact me a different way if you have my info (especially once you hear that the surgery is scheduled) and I can connect you with the meal coordination. (One note: we are non-dairy. I think mostly because we're getting old, not because of some nutritional revelation.) (One more note: I would ask visitors to coordinate in the same way. It's special to have a surprise visit, but now is not a good time for that. Please let us know somehow.)
Send a Meal After Surgery #14: Same thing, but for people like me who don't cook. Send a restaurant gift card or organize a delivery of food. I guess Uber, Grubhub and eat24 deliver food from a ton of places now. Once again: non-dairy; email me.
Pray for Us: I know not all of my readers are religious folks. But if you are, I would ask for your prayers. Read the things that I write here so you can know what to pray for. If there was ever a time we needed divine intervention, it is now.
If you don't believe in God or don't believe God answers prayers, then I will pray for you instead. No. Just kidding. (Kinda.) But in that I will offer this greater point: We are not insulted at all by people that send us "positive thoughts" or offer similar encouragement.
Give to This Thing My Aunt Started: I am very hesitant to put this one on here, but my aunt started a GoFundMe account for us about a month ago. It's been kept relatively quiet, but I thought I would mention it here. Yes, we have pretty good insurance, but the whole truth is that co-pays are a bit of money.
That's about as far as I'm gonna go with that. If you have already given to your church, your favorite charity, your kid's band's bake sale, your whatever, you could think about it. (don't even think about it otherwise) This is GoFundMe page is 100% legit and was 100% not our doing (and 100% NOT tax-deductible as we are just private citizens).
Give to a Charity That's Dedicated to Fighting Cancer: Give to Fred Hutch or to Komen, both of which have had an impact on Anne-Marie's personal fight against this disease. Or give to one of hundreds of other good, responsible non-profits that hate cancer even more than we do. Many allow donations "in honor of". Put Anne-Marie's name in there. It's like giving us a high five from a distance. It's tax deductible and you'll feel awesome.
Any of these things are super appreciated. And our needs will likely change as time goes on and I'll write another post, but for now: We have been blessed with far more than we'll ever deserve. Thank you all. We love you.
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P.S.: Some have sent cards (thank you) or are maybe still wanting to. Email me by clicking here for our home address.
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