Hi,
I can not see the people who read this post, nor read their thoughts.
I hope that any individual who reads this post has a compassionate nature, even if they are not in a position to help themselves, but at least spread the word to friends or family that can.
First I will tell you a little bit about myself.
I am 44 yr old man, that is a multiple cancer survivor, and have been in remission for a little over a year now. My battle versus cancer lasted over 8 years, during which I was physically unable to work. My cancer came from a combination of radiation exposure in the military back in the 80's, and a dominate gene-trait in my family associated with Gardner's Syndrome. There are 14 known members of my family that carry this gene. The youngest is my 9 yr old nephew named Peter. The little guy was born in the same hospital I was in right after my colon ruptured from a golf-ball sized tumor in my descending-colon. It breaks my heart that in a handful of years my lil' buddy Peter is going to need to go thru surgery to remove his colon, that is what they do first with individuals diagnosed with GS.
Now I believe that it was out of pure stubborness that I survived that first year as I dropped from 180 lbs to 120 lbs. It is a diet I do not recommend to anyone! During my battle with cancer my ex-wife decided that she wanted out of our marriage. I did not make much of an effort to stop the break-up, because we were having some trouble even before I became sick. So I needed to turn my energy toward fighting my cancer rather than a big emotional battle with her. I just did not have it in me to do both. Some people might not agree with how I handled the situation, but at the time it was my best option if I wanted to survive.
It took 4 surgeries, 2 of them major (split breast-bone to pelvic bone), months of chemotherapy and 28 radiation treatments to get me on to the road to recovery. Now once a year I go for a high resolution CAT-scan to see if I am still cancer-free. Every year I go dreading the results, because my oncologist says it is very likely for me to get cancer again. But I still go in there knowing if I do have it again, I can over-come it. Since I have already done it, and more than once.
Once I recovered enough from my cancer, I was able to return to the work-force. Granted it was not at the same position as before but at a lesser capacity. Before my cancer diagnoses, I was a front-end manager for a very nice Italian restaurant. I was making a nice living and gaining experience to one day open my own restaurant. The down-side was that the establishment I was working for did not have health insurance, and it caused a lot of head-aches for me, due to financial stress. It resulted in quite a bit of unpaid debt, and so when I did return to work it left me in dire straights to try and clear my credit-rating up. As I was making less than half of what I made before my cancer, it made it very difficult to catch up on everything. Then the economy went sour, and my income dropped even further. So needless to say it has been a struggle the last few years for me. But am I going to give up? NO!
Well now we come to the part where the title to my blog comes into play. Angie.
I met Angie thru a friend and started chatting with her on the phone. We had a lot of common interests, and sometimes almost eerie co-incidents in our lives, like both of our dads being born on the 19th day of the month, and dying on the 19th. Spooky wouldn't you say? Well needless to say we feel that we are each other soul-mates. Only problem is, we live 1800 miles(2900km) apart on opposite sides of the country. I live in Idaho and she lives in Florida.
Angie is a single mom with one child living at home with her, and her mom who is a teacher close to retirement age. Angie was down-sized from her job long enough ago, that last month her unemployment insurance benefits ran out. Her mom did not work thru the summer and so was not getting paid because of it. I have been sending what help I can but it is not enough help for her needs. I am upset with myself for every penny I wasted the last few years, like buying things I did not really need. Like going to the doughnut shop instead of fixing a good breakfast at home. Then I could of had more on hand right now to help her out. I listen to her pour her out to me, to the point it has me in tears, and end up being so frustrated cause I can not do more for her.
Before you think that Angie is taking advantage of me. You have to understand, we talk on the phone for a minimum of 8 hours a day, and she fights me tooth n' nail about accepting any help from me. It is always a argument with her about sending her some help.
Now I would like to do something for Angie to help dry up her tears.
One, I would like to get some finances together to help her out of the little hole that her family is in at the moment, and to give her a small cushion for a month or so.
Two, I would like to move down there which is something we both want very much so we can do this together and not apart.
Three, I am working on establishing a business that takes very small amount of start-up funds.
Now to do all of these things will take about 20 thousand dollars. But the most important is to rise $2500 to help her and her family with bills, and to buy me a plane ticket to get me down there so we can do this together. I can transfer within my current employer to a branch down there to help out directly. That is until I get my business up an running smoothly, and since it is something I do online it is something I can do here or there off a laptop/wireless connection.
Now for those of you reading this, it is my solemn vow to help 3 people in similar situations in the future as a way of paying it forward so please keep that in mind if you decide to help. That way the gift of giving grows, and more people will benefit from the generosity of others. It would be nice if one person of a giving nature could help out, or 20,000 help out with even a dollar.
I will not accept any more help than that, because that will let me establish my business and to help her. I want everyone to know that I am just asking for hand-up, not a hand-out. If I was to take more, then what I really need as a hand-up, than other people might not get the help they need now because I was being greedy and selfish, if that was my nature. As a cancer survivor I am definitely not that. If you are unable to help financially please spread the word to your family or friends about this blog. So that the word might get to someone that is of a mind to help me to get my life, my dreams back from before my cancer derailed it. And to help me assist Angie and her family out of their tough times.
Now time is of importance here, as I only came up with this idea of asking thru a blog yesterday, and Angie is in a real time crunch, because she disconnects for some of her household needs, and one of them is for tomorrow at 5pm EST on Sept 2, 2011. She just texted me as I was writing this that her internet is down so now she is unable to even get online at home to find a job, or some kind of assistance to her financial problems.
If you can find it in your heart to help and wish to do so, please contact me thru my e-mail at julius.south@gmail.com. I will answer all inquires if they are serious about wanting to help, and how we might do it. If you can not help financial, but would like to do something. Simply spread the word, as I know there is a good Samaritan out there somewhere that can.
I intend to keep this blog updated with details of how things are. And if I can get the help I need, I will also post that success as well as what I do with it. I will also keep the members of this blog informed of any new developments thru posts of my business and it's growth so that those that help can see that it was beneficial to not only me, but to Angie. Hopefully I can see her tears dry up in the next couple of days, and a smile return to her voice that things will work out for not only her but us.
I would now like to take the time to thank all of the people who have taken the time to read this blog, and for those of you that spread the word a even bigger thank you. And for those of you who can help financially and willing to do so, I can not express into words what that would mean to me.
I hope God blesses each and everyone of you with happiness in your lives and lots of love, because love and happiness is what matters most.
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