I hate having to say this, but since I have a bit of a reputation as a kidder and a tease and a storyteller, I want to say right upfront that this is NOT a joke, guys. I swear on everything I hold holy that I am being 100% serious here.
I have a friend named Jean Bauhaus and her family has suffered some devastating losses recently. Not only is her father-in-law in the hospital, but her mother-in-law (his wife) died suddenly and unexpectedly a few days ago. The really shitty thing about all this is that not only do they not have the funds to bury her (like she wanted), they don't even have the funds to cremate her and now Jean has had to go to the social services office and apply for a county-funded cremation.
Jean will probably be pissed I'm telling you all this, but she posted it on her blog and Facebook page, so I'm not breaking any vow of secrecy here.
Now my friend is way too proud to ask for help, so I'm going to do it for her. I am asking you -- I am begging you -- I am pleading with you to please donate some money to her family so that they can bury her mother-in-law the way they want.
I know some of you might say "Well it's her own fault for not having a life insurance policy," but be that as it may, funerals are for the living, not the dead. Jean and her husband, Matt -- who I would like to stress lost his mother right before Christmas -- now can't afford to bury her, and once she's cremated they can't very well un-cremate her at a later date when they have more money.
So please. This is me, on my knees, asking everyone who can hear my voice to please donate even a little bit of money to my friend. This is Christmas, the season of miracles of charity and giving. Even if you only donate a dollar, that's one dollar less they have to scrape together.
She is a good person. Helping her is a good thing. Even the smallest act of kindness will be rewarded.
I can't figure out how to make a permanent link to her PayPal account, but there is a donation button on her website, about halfway down on the right-hand side. If you follow the link it will say "JM Bauhaus Enterprises" because she is a writer like me. She isn't expecting people to donate, and she certainly didn't expect me to write this post. But I ask you, please do this one decent thing to help a family I know and care about, and help her husband bury his mother the way she deserves.
Please do this for my friend this Christmas. Thank you, and bless you for helping.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
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Oh, honey. I appreciate so much what you're trying to do. Seriously, I can't even tell you how much this means to me. But the county cremation wheels are already set in motion, and we've all made our peace with that. It would cost several thousand dollars just for a bare bones burial service, and I would absolutely hate for people to give toward that cause and it still not be enough or on time. So while I really, really appreciate this and love you for it, it's just not necessary. But thank you so much for wanting to help.
ReplyDeleteMy initial irrational response is to say "Stop the county wheels, then, and see what people can do," because this is Christmas DAMMIT and we all need a miracle right now.
ReplyDeleteThe slightly more pragmatic side of me says "Use the money to help your father-in-law find a good assisted living facility, if you can't do anything about the funeral. If nothing else, maybe you can afford to hire people to help clean and move furniture out of their apartment."
Because regardless of what does or doesn't happen with the county, your family is in financial need right now, and I will bust my ass to help in whatever limited ways I can.