LIMA — You are not supposed to have a stroke in your 30s.
That is what Mary keeps telling herself, but that is exactly what happened to her earlier this year, just as things seemed to be going well for her and her husband, Barry, and their children, Cam and Gabrielle.
“Toward the beginning of the summer, things were actually okay,” she said. “For once, we were able to pay our bills and everyone was in good health.”
That changed when Mary started noticing bouts of rapid heartbeat and feelings of anxiety. She thought it was an emotional issue until one morning when a tickle in her throat turned into something more.
“I coughed a couple of times, and all of a sudden the room started spinning,” she said. “I’ve never experienced something like it before.”
She and Barry hoped that rest would help, but her health deteriorated over the next couple of days to the point where she was rushed to the hospital, where she learned the heartbreaking news.
“They said, ‘You’re in pretty bad shape,’” Mary said. “‘We did a scan and you had a stroke.’”
After a week-long stay in the hospital, Mary has continued to make trip after trip to various doctors to determine the cause of her stroke as well as to mitigate the effects of the stroke, but a cause has yet to be determined. In the meantime, the bills have continued to pile up.
“I feel bad for [Barry] because he’s picked up a lot of work,” Mary said. “We’re trying to get by and we’re still struggling. We don’t believe in lying to our kids, but we also didn’t want them to see the decline in how things would be around here, like having to pawn stuff for money.”
With Mary unable to work as she is still trying to recover, Barry is now working three jobs to try to bring in more income, but the bills are piling up faster than the money is coming in. Now, to add insult to injury, their stove just quit working. With the holidays approaching, Mary and Barry made the call to go to the Salvation Army for help.
“I felt uncomfortable and I didn’t even want to do this,” Mary said. “I know there are people who are worse off than me.”
When it comes to gifts, both children could use some clothes.
“I feel like we’re a season behind,” Mary said.
Cam, 15, wears size 34-36 pants, an extra-large shirt and size 12 1/2 shoes. He is not into jeans, Mary said, but prefers to be comfortable in sweat pants. Gabrielle, 9, wears an extra large in both tops and bottoms and women’s size 9 1/2 shoes. She love anything in bright colors with rainbows and unicorns.
“She’s our girly girl,” Mary said.
Other gift ideas are nail polish and a blanket for Gabrielle and a men’s bicycle for Cam.
In the meantime, Mary is hopeful that this rough patch will eventually pass, and any help she and her family may receive along the way will just be a bonus.
“I’m not expecting anything,” Mary said. “If people do want to help, they can, but if not, God bless everybody. We’ve hit a rough spot, and hopefully it’s just temporary.”
ADOPT A STOCKING
The Adopt a Stocking Fund benefits families during the holiday season. Monetary donations can be given online at give.salvationarmy.org/stocking or via Adopt A Stocking; c/o The Salvation Army; P.O. Box 234, Lima, OH 45801. All material donations for a specific family should be dropped off at The Salvation Army, 614 E. Market St., Lima, and should include a copy of the article or the date the story appeared in The Lima News. See past stories at LimaOhio.com/tag/stocking.
Reach Craig Kelly at 567-242-0391.
