My brother Robert in happier, healthier times.
Hello, Kossacks! I came to this site 13 years ago while going through the shock years of Dubya being
president. Seems so quaint now! Health care was always my #1 issue, and this site is always teeming with experts who talk the talk and walk the walk in ways you just don’t find elsewhere.
I’m going to be 63 in a couple of months, and while I’ve had my share of health challenges, I feel very
fortunate to be able to function for the most part, work full time, and live a simple life I am deeply grateful for filled with plants, flowers, cats, and good friends.
My brother Robert is 18 months younger than I am. We were always best friends growing up (after I
got through the terrible twos and wanted to kill him, that is!) He was a cat man from way back, and
I can still see him lying in the dirt outside Grandma’s country house sweet talking a feral kitten out
into the daylight. It is his superpower. The last few years have been brutal for him, however. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and has had a horrific journey with it thus far. He is one of those
Americans who does not have health insurance and has not been able to work for several years.
He is at about half of the body weight now that you see here. When I saw him two years ago at my
Dad’s funeral, he looked like a skeleton and was not responsive at all. He looked older than my Dad
did when he died, which was a traumatizing visual in and of itself.
I have started a Go Fund Me page for Robert and I wanted to humbly request that if anyone could spare a small donation of any kind, they might do that for him. It is the most graphic and horrifying
indignity to be thrown in such a position where your only option is to die. If anyone could share the
page, that might help, too. My deceased father was helping to take care of Robert until he died at the age of 87. Dad often expressed concern about what was going to happen to his son once he
wasn’t there. Unfortunately, very bad things. It hurts to know that this is happening all over the
country, to so many people who never did anything to deserve such a terrifying fate. Any one of
us might have to face it at some point. Robert’s wife has gotten legal help to try and get him on
Disability, but he has been turned down a half dozen times. She works as a cashier in a local grocery
store in Oklahoma where they live, and she has no health insurance, either. He has been in and
out of hospitals over the last month and she’s been charging a week at a time on her credit card
for a nursing home stay. It is obviously not a sustainable plan.
It is agonizing to know what a slippery slope he is on. I haven’t been able to talk to him for a few
months as he can’t speak at this point, and is extremely disoriented and hallucinates constantly.
In a way it’s easier living in Phoenix and not seeing his physical devastation up close, but it is
terrifying to know that I may never get to hear him talk again. He is a beautiful human being who
ran afoul of a system that does not care. I grieve for how much of his life he has already lost and
pray that he will regain a little lucidity at some point before his body just can’t take it anymore.
Parkinson’s is not a kind disease in any way, and it is horribly expensive as the main course of
treatment involves multiple drugs that cost a fortune. Robert and his wife aren’t really armed for that plan of action.
Thank you all for reading this! If you could send him a little light, that would be wonderful, too. Compassion and awareness are great healers. I am grateful just to share my story here, knowing
how many kind hearts are part of this amazing community of people who come together for the greater good every day.
The link to his page is: https://www.gofundme.com/help-robert-survive
