One of the best things about this job is the feedback we get from people. It’s nice to get an e-mail saying how helpful the information in the blog was to someone going out with their boyfriend for the first time. It’s awesome to have someone tell me they LMAOed on a bad day when they read our stuff and it made their day better. That’s the very best — even though I still have a hard time believing anyone reads this but my mom and my BFFs, it really makes me happy to know someone laughs.
Though this kind of thing is generally outside the scope of this blog, we’ve realized we’re in a unique position pass along info that could help people out. Case in point: We got an e-mail the other day that really struck a chord in both myself and George, and I think it’s important enough to pass on.
I received your information from a co-worker, Homer Lee. My husband has a friend that is a long-distance truck driver. He is married with three daughters. One daughter has cerebral palsy. Her twin sister has no disabilities, neither does the other sister. His name is Bruce Hardy. He was in Arkansas recently and was found dead in the bathroom of a truck stop. He was only 45. The family has no life insurance. It cost his wife $2,500 to have his body shipped home. My husband and I are having a benefit for the family on Dec 1. It will be a field trial and we also hope to sell dinner plates. We will be cooking a hog. The mother of the disabled daughter has carried her daughter everywhere she goes. The child is 90 lbs. She has no wheelchair that will help her mother transport her anywhere. The girl cannot sit in a normal chair due to her hips. It causes her too much pain to sit upright. So her mother literally carries her everywhere they go. I am writing you to put it out there that this family is in desperate need of help. The daughter needs a wheelchair, the family needs money. The mother had to quit her job to take care of the disabled daughter. I don’t know what you can do if anything, but whatever you do, I would appreciate it.
This was especially poignant to George, who had a similar experience a few weeks ago when he helped pull a dead guy out of a bathroom stall in Kentucky. It was obviously a different guy, but the experience shook him up enough that when we got this e-mail, it freaked him out a little. We wanted to do something for the family of the man, but there was never any information made public other than he died of a heart attack and was in his 50s, with a family. No one wants to die alone in a bathroom, and the family may not have wanted it made public, so we never said anything about it.
This family obviously needs help. Homer Lee (mentioned in the e-mail) is George’s first cousin. He’s part of the South Carolina family, and he’s a damn decent dude. He verified the information, and immediately got the little girl a wheelchair through his company, Lincare. There is a memorial fund set up at Health Facility Credit Union in Florence, S.C. I don’t have any more info on the pig roast, although I’m incredibly interested in any kind of pig-cooking.
We have passed the information along to the St. Christopher fund, an awesome organization to donate money to, should you be looking for a place to drop $50 or so.
Thanks again for reading, laughing and keeping up. I enjoy writing for you as much as you enjoy reading it. Remember, if you can affect one person in a positive way today, you’ve done your job as a human being. Otherwise, you’re an alien.
