This is my dad, and he's sick.
Learning to camp, originally uploaded by CommonVee.
This is a picture of my two sisters and I getting instructions from my dad on how to put up a tent. I think this photo is about 20 years old.
I received a call from my mom this evening around 11pm. She told me that my dad has been experiencing extreme pain for the past THREE DAYS in his lower left abdomen. She said they were trying to consider whether to go to the emergency room, or to wait until morning. Apparently, the pain has been so bad in the last 48 hours that my dad could not even sleep.
I urged her very, very strongly to take my dad to the hospital immediately. My parents live in Michigan, so I don't see them often and am certainly not nearby to help out when these things happen. My mom didn't sound that certain that they would go to the emergency room, so I called my middle sister and got her to conference call with me to convince my mom to take dad to the ER. My mom said they would talk about it and give us a call back, but told us that dad was in so much pain that he didn't wasn't able to talk to us.
My dad is in his mid-sixties, and both he and my mom are self-employed with their own home business (they teach kids through adults how to read). They do not have health insurance. My mom mentioned one of the reasons that they did not want to go to the ER was because of the cost.
Thankfully, mom called back about 10 minutes later to say that they had decided to go to the ER. I was relived, and also worried about the medical costs that will now start building up for them. My dad is my shining star, my shoulder to cry on, and maybe knows the heart of me best of all the people in the world. When I was a kid people used to call me "little Filkie" because I looked just like him. He is someone in the world who I know loves me completely unconditionally. I know my parents are getting older, and things like this will start happening more frequently. I just want to try to help them out, even a little, right now in some tangible way. I don't pray much these days, and am not even sure I know how to anymore. I do know that I want to help in a way that means something to them.
I've set up a donation site for my dad, and to thank people for their donations I am offering prints for donations as follows:
- for a donation of $20 - $39, I will send one 4x6 or 5x5 signed print of your choice;
- for a donation of $40 - $59, I will send one 8x12 or 8x8 signed print of your choice;
- for a donation of $60 or above, I will send one mounted, matted, signed 8x12 or 8x8 print of your choice.
This can be a print of any photo I've ever taken, although you may find the best artsy-type stuff in this set.
Thank you a million, million times over for reading this, for thinking wonderful healing pure thoughts for my dad (and mom), and for donating anything extra that you can. I hope I can do the same for you someday.
To donate, just click the "donate" button below (you don't need a PayPal account to send funds):