Power. So simple. So necessary. Let's get it back for Alexandra and Bear.

Photo copyright Alexandra Lynch; all rights reserved.

This is Bear. He's the husband of my friend Alexandra.

And when I say, "This is Bear," I mean exactly that:  This is him, right now, today. In the hospital, hooked up to a ventilator.

Life has not been kind to Alexandra and Bear and their family in recent years. They both deal with disabling conditions resulting from a very bad car accident some years ago. Their medical conditions, coupled with a bad economy, have reduced the family finances to dust. I didn't know how bad it was until last week, when Alexandra mentioned that their utilities had been off. For a while.

Unfortunately, last week, Bear what they thought was a routine asthma attack but turned out to be something much, much worse. Heart attack, coupled with diabetes. Multiple blockages, none less than 70%. By the first of this week, he was in the hospital, undergoing a quintuple bypass. He's still a young man. A young man now with five bypasses in the arteries of his heart.

Meanwhile, Alexandra has to cope with his condition, which has to be terrifying for her. He's in good shape overall, apparently, but there are, of course, some complications. Meanwhile, she has family responsibilities, both children and parents — and hot weather looming, and no power on in the house. 

This is not workable.

Even in the absolute best-case scenario, Bear will need the power on to refrigerate his insulin when he finally comes home. But he will also need air conditioning to provide some relief from the heat and humidity; his condition can't be aggravated by severe physical discomfort that's easily fixed with a little electricity and the money to pay for it.

Alexandra has put up a GoFundMe page to try to raise $2,000.  This will get any arrearages covered and get the power turned back on. But she and Bear are going to need a lot more support than just a little electricity in the weeks and months to come. Their lives have just been altered in catastrophic ways. They'll need help over the long term.

So please, go here, and donate if you can. Even if you can't, please share the link with all of your networks. We'll be in for a bit ourselves later, when I've had a chance to see where we are for the rest of the month. At that point, I'll ask you to help match it, however modest it may be.

Let's get Bear back to doing what he loves:

Photo copyright Alexandra Lynch; all rights reserved.

and Alexandra back to being able to smile like this without thinking about it:

Photo copyright Alexandra Lynch; all rights reserved.

Chi miigwech.