Mothers Day 2010 ends one journey and begins another

It's here.

Mother's Day.

The last time I was with my Mother on Mother's day was we think 1998 at my sister's graduation from high school. At least that's what we all remember because a year later my Mother and Father moved to Florida from Overland Park while my sister continued her studies at KU. Here's a picture of Stacy's graduation







Fast forward 12 years later. Wow.

Now, thanks the kindness of the community, she now has a stable fully furnished apartment with subsided housing in Olathe. With the help of Jewish Family Services, Johnson County Area on Aging, and Kansas Social and Rehabilitation Services, she's really in good shape. Throughout her journey I reminded her how nice it would be to share Mother's day with her son.

While I didn't get to make Mom breakfast in bed like I would when I was a kid (come on, who didn't?), I'll be making her dinner tonight in my home.

That's kinda cool.

I'll keep this blog up as a testament to everyone's kindness and I hope to share a personal letter from my Mom thanking everyone, but one thing at a time.

This day is about Mom and I :-)

While the family will never be whole again after the loss of my father in 2003, we are all in the same state.

While Mother's day is about giving gifts of appreciation and love to your Mom, she gave me the best gift by allowing me to express that to her in person.

How quickly you all respond and how happy Mom is

I posted yesterday Mom still needed a microwave and a vacuum cleaner. Within an hour, two people came forward with those items. I'm so amazingly appreciative.

Mom said something really sweet yesterday: people donated this, not because they know me, but because they respect an trust you. Otherwise they would have simply donated these items somewhere else

Awww :-)

The new apartment is ready-almost

What an amazing effort by everyone. Moving the stuff was quite the chore. We did that this weekend. I apologize for not updating more, but as you can imagine, my plate has been rather full. We need to cleanup and put away a bit, but I wanted everyone to see as soon as possible all the stuff we got in.

I'm amazed that we were able to do this all for less than $100---everything else was donated.

Tuesday is the big day when they get to see the apartment--then writing thank you letters begins

Caught up and we have alot of stuff

WOW.

The generosity has been incredible. We've got alot of stuff. This week was crazy for me: trying to get my mother moved, helping out a friend run her business while she was out of town...and preparing for that whole iPad thing.

I've updated the list on the side and I think we are really set. The only small missing items that might be helpful are:

Microwave
Dresser

Anything else we are missing?

What a weekend!

Wow, we did some major picking up of stuff this weekend. Unfortunately I wrenched my back at one point so Mike was a real trooper and helped out. I'll update the have/need stuff later as I was only working half steam today.

We've got silverware and various kitchen utensils, spice rack, glasses, pots and pants, knives. teapot, small containers for sandwiches, a pitcher, mugs, some towels, a bedspread/comforter, curtains. Wow. I'm still looking through the stuff. I promise and update tomorrow.

TV too

Most important is a BED! Yeah!

My short list says we need some kind of microwave oven and a dresser.

Thanks for all your help! Makes my days less stressful, that's for sure.

Sorting through donations

Thanks everyone whose contacted me. This weekend I hope to pick up many of the items and give a detailed report of what items we are still in need of. The biggest expense seems to be a bed. We can't easily get those used and my Mom has so many back problems I'm concerned. I'm hoping that if all other items are taken care of, I can at least afford buying her a new bed.

Lots of leads I'm sorting through

Thank you to everyone that has emailed me so far. I don't want to post something for sure until I actually pick it up. I'm superstitious a little that way I guess. This weekend I'll clean out my car and start picking up actual items. Lots of leads on kitchen supplies.

Overall this is an exhausting process :-) Having a full time+ job combined with all the minutia of this task is overwhelming. For example, over an hour yesterday with AT&T trying to set up "lifeline" phone service, which is discounted phone service for lower income residents. Problem is that the lifeline department is separate from the general AT&T order department,so each part of the order setup I had to refer her to the fact that the lifeline discount wasn't included. Sigh. Still not sure they set up the order right. I asked for a callback to confirm all aspects of the order and the total price. I was supposed to get the order confirmation call yesterday. Never did.

Today I actually go to Olathe Towers to sign the lease for my Mom. It's scary to think that this is the last move my Mom will probably ever make in her life.

New items: TV, bookcase

I did a pick up last night of a TV and bookcase. I'll probably need to coordinate pickups a bit more. Didn't have enough room in my car to pick up stuff last night.

Made some changes to the blog

I've played with blogger and added a what we have and what we need list. I'll update those as needed. I also added my email address at the tope here. Thanks for all your suggestions. This will be the apartment that social media built!

Looking in my basement I found laundry baskets

It's ironic these were left over from when my sister moved to Florida. These are a few flat ones. Should help with laundry. I know the laundry facilities are on the same floor as her apartment, so that's good

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!