Update No 5: This Morning (Monday) our total raised is $1450 — ¾ of the way to our goal — Thank YOu, Everyone!
UPDATE NO 4: We ARE OFFIcially over the halfway point — $1050 raised tonight (SUnday)
Update No 3: Almost halfway there — Just $50 MORE would take us to $1000
About 9:30 received a brief Kosmail from swampyankee from her hospital bed. She reports that the total raised so far in her PayPal is $900. With a couple snail-mail contributions coming and one or two donations in the thread, let’s guestimate $950 raised so far. JUST $50 more to the halfway point. We can do it. THANKS TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY HELPED.
Please continue to help us get this diary seen around the entire DKOS site or on social media. Republish, tip, rec, comment, and donate if you can. Thanks so much. Swampyankee is so grateful.
[Earlier updates have been moved to the bottom of the diary]
She has survived the cancer
It’s been a year and a half of recovery from small cell lung cancer for Kossack swampyankee. Several months ago, she even went through a final round of “preventative chemo” treatments (who knew that was even a thing?). She was declared cancer free. Of course cancer had taken its toll — physically, emotionally, financially. It’s been a long and expensive haul, financing a full year in the nursing facility. For six months, swampyankee received help with the costs, but that subsidy ran out. Her brother and sister have also tried to help. This generous DKOS community helped as well.
Swampy was feeling good and looking forward to reuniting with her beloved kitties. She was ready to go home. The doctors gave the OK, so long as she found a first-floor apartment. Because of her low income as a senior existing on a meager SS check, a local social service agency called Money Follows the Person stepped in to assist swampy with eventual permanent housing. At least in theory. So what happened?
Now She Got Sick in the Nursing Home
Perhaps the nursing home isn’t doing her health any good at this point. Rather just the opposite. As she waited month after month for agency-sanctioned housing, swampyankee grew stronger. She was in good spirits generally. She had high hopes of being re-housed in the community by Christmas. Instead, about a week ago she suddenly came down with a bad case of pneumonia and is still experiencing heart palpitations. She is very weak. Right now, she is on a breathing machine that should help break up the congestion in her chest. She should make a full recovery. However, this setback means another month in the nursing home. Swampy can’t afford it.
Paypal is jennifercirino@sbcglobal.net
Goal: $2,000
So Why Hadn’t She Already Been Rehoused Back Into the Community?
Swampyankee should have been re-homed months ago. She did not expect to spend her second Christmas in the nursing facility. The agency that re-settles people in the community will ultimately subsidize her rent. That’s great. They were put on notice in the spring. But as of this past July, when swampy was cleared to go home, they hadn’t even started looking. “They are slower than molasses in January,” swampy sighed four months ago. In the meanwhile, her nursing bill goes up and up. She can’t realistically return to her current second-floor apartment (now housing her cats) because of her COPD and other health issues. Plus, she would lose her promised rent subsidy. With all their good intentions, it seems unconscionable that a social service agency has put their client between a rock and a hard place. But recently, things looked hopeful. The agency had a lead on a ground floor apartment. I’m not sure what happened. And then swampy got sick.
Would swampyankee have contracted a severe life-threatening pneumonia if she had been in her own place? Who knows. Perhaps. But statistics suggest she would have been healthier, and certainly happier, settled into a place of her own. Don’t get me wrong. Swampy likes most of the hands-on caregivers at the extended care facility. They have been an important part of her recovery and she very much appreciates that. She doesn’t appreciate the heavy-handed tactics of the management, who at one point tried to garnish her SS check without her knowledge — a check she needs to pay for her old apartment and bills.
So now, instead of moving into the anticipated subsidized apartment as promised, once again swampy is recovering from illness. And once again she has been put into a position of trying to get financially stable so she can move forward when the time comes. It doesn’t seem fair or right.
How You Can Help
Please donate if you can. Rec, tip, comment, and help us make the diary a success. Share on social media. Republish to other DKOS grous. Donations, of course, are most needed and welcome.
Paypal is jennifercirino@sbcglobal.net
If anyone prefers to mail a check, please Kosmail me. I have swampy’s address.
Goal: $2,000
P.S. What exactly is a Swamp Yankee? Traditionally the term refers to the hardscrabble rural folk of southeastern New England with colonial ancestry, specifically from CT and western RI and that corner of Massachusetts that abuts those states. It wasn’t originally a compliment, imply the person was somewhat of a rube.The name may have originated with an unfortunate incident in 1776 involving the town of Thompson and the surrounding lowland mire.The swamp yankee is the quintessential rural New Englander: frugal, sparse of word, independent, no-nonsense, perhaps hard-headed. Today, it is often used simply to refer to a resident of CT and sometimes RI.
Update No. 2: It’s now 8 pm EST and the diary has been on the Rec List for six hours. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED AND WHO HELPED W/ recs, tips, comments, sharing. As we hear from swampy, I will post updates here and at the Community Needs List where it appears around DKOS at the daily Resistance/Village, PWB Peeps, and Street Prophets diaries.
Meanwhile, it’s been a supreme team effort of generous donors and the helpers who chat, post pics, rec, tip, and share. Swampyankee appreciates you all. This is a wonderful empathetic community whose members live what they preach.
AND WE ARE NOT DONE YET.
Brief Update No 1: I wish I could update on the totals raised, but naturally swampy is the only one with access to her PayPal and she may be too ill to drop in much, if at all. However, the diary is still on the rec list after two hours, so thanks all the Kossacks who have taken the time to stop in and rec and tip. I see some new names, too, who don’t frequent fundraisers, and that is really great news. Please help us get this diary seen around the entire DKOS site or on social media. Republish, tip, rec, comment, and donate if you can.