Starting the journey

Hi all. I've started this blog to help my Mom on her journey from West Palm Beach, Florida to Olathe Kansas. I currently live in Lawrence Kansas and I'm self-employed as a computer repair technician. A bit of backstory.

In 2003 my father was diagnosed with aggressive Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma at age 60, and died approximately 6 months after diagnosis. He couldn't work and medical insurance didn't cover most of the bills. My sister, recently graduated from college, flew down to help Mom out and share in household duties. Then she got very ill and Mom was stuck paying Dad's medical bills, my sister's medical bills and college loans as well as daily expenses. You can guess the rest of the story.

Mom tried valiantly to balance it all, but then she lost her job and the only source of income was her social security. Bills piled up and eventually she couldn't pay the mortgage and will be removed by the sheriff from her home on April 15th. She only recently told me the full scope of the problem. I've secured her housing, but we can't afford to move all her stuff up here and honestly, she'll be moving from a larger house into a small apartment and wouldn't even be able to fit her old stuff in it. We are donating all her possessions down to social service agencies in Florida. I've told her that I firmly believe that what she donated down there, will be returned to her by the kindness of people up here.

I've helped out where I could, but the tasks of moving her up here, securing housing, public assistance is very difficult. She didn't want to be a "burden," but now things are desperate. Most social service agencies won't help out until someone lives in the area--but how can she move up here without basic life necessities? This economy of course makes finding assistance hard. We're hoping for some help to fill in the gaps--and maybe even do some good in helping people clean out possessions they no longer want and need.

So here comes the interesting way people can help and see the power of social media to do real good in this world.

By the way, the picture is slightly before my second birthday. Mom's taking care of me and now it's my turn to take care of her.

I'm asking for donations of anything that might be useful to someone setting up a new apartment. Bigger items like a dresser or a set of chairs as well as basic smaller items such as kitchen utensils.

Please don't buy anything new for this: used stuff in good working order is what I want. I want this to be a green project and see that items are getting reused instead of recycled or put in the trash.

That being said, feel free to buy something new and donate the old stuff to my Mom. For example, I know we are needing some new towels. Ours have become mismatched over the years and it's time we get a new set. Mom will be getting the old set that is in perfectly good shape: we just don't have two towels or washclothes of the same color. I also hope this acts as a mini economic stimulus package.

I'll post on this blog specific item requests that come up as well as any items people donate. Ideas of things she'll need or other resources I can work with to help would be greatly appreciated. Freecycle will be of great help, so I'll post whenever I get something there as well

How powerful is social media? My Mom (and I) are about to find out!