On The Receiving End of Charity

 

This is the time of year that our mailboxes are full of requests for donations to many charities. We get requests frequently from St. Judes, MD Anderson, Shriner's and many, many others. There are many requests from food banks and various "feed the hungry" organizations. We have given often to some of these organizations such as St. Judes and Shriner's. It is always hard to see children suffering from disease at such a young age and just breaks my heart.

When writing my check to these organizations I don't give it a tremendous amount of thought as to the impact it may have. I'm embarrassed to say my checks are not large but I hope that if thousands or tens of thousands give just a little, it will all add up to help the cause. We often listen to Christian radio stations and they seem to have fundraising drives on a regular basis. There are a lot of needs out there and I'm sure it is tough competition for all the charities chasing your donations. I shop often at charitable thrift stores, so hopefully my purchases will result in providing small amounts to assist in these causes. 

My family has been fortunate over the years and has not been in need of charitable assistance. Other than the government cheese and butter I remember getting from the back of a truck when I was a kid, I can't think of being on the receiving end of charity over the years. Does anyone else remember the cheese and butter? We lived in a small town of about 800 in Texas and it had to be mid 1970's. The word would get out the cheese and butter truck was in town and everyone went up and got a block of butter and block of cheese. Good stuff! Everyone got it, no criteria that I can recall, no income limits or anything else. Just free cheese and butter!

Well......things have flipped on me and now my wife and I have been and are currently on the receiving end of charity. When my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2021, our lives were turned upside down. She is being treated at MD Anderson Cancer center in Houston, about 8 hours from our home of Oklahoma City, OK. We traveled back and fourth by car and plane for 6 trips for appointments, surgery and follow up. We stayed in hotels during those trips between 3 and 14 days at a time. Beginning the first of this month (Oct) she started chemo that is a 5 month period, she takes a 4-6 week break then another 1 1/2 months of radiation. Due to the frequency of the treatments and how she would feel, we knew we would be camping out somewhere in Houston for 6 1/2 months total. We expected it to be costly.

Here is where we flipped to the receiving end of charity. A niece of ours (Thanks Holly!) set up a fundraising effort on something called the Meal Train to help offset the cost of meals while we were in Houston for treatment. This was unexpected by us and greatly appreciated. She raised over $1,000 with her effort and the money was transferred to our account. We withdrew it, stuck the cash in an envelope specifically for our meals in Houston. We were blown away by the contributions and are extremely thankful. A lot of the donations were from friends and family, many who had experienced dealing with cancer or had close family that had dealt with cancer. 

Before heading to Houston, we had put our name on several waiting lists for free housing specifically for cancer patients that lived outside the Houston area. We had not heard from any, so we went ahead and leased a furnished apartment on a month to month lease. It was cheaper than a hotel and would be more comfortable with a kitchen and living room. Cheaper than 30 days in a hotel but still expensive. Four days into our stay in the apartment we get a call from one of the apartments that had availability. We accepted the apartment and moved in the next day. We were able to get a partial refund on the furnished apartment as they were able to lease it again.

So, here I sit in our charitable "free" apartment and we are both so thankful for it. It is nice, it has everything we need for a comfortable stay. We are limited to 3 months, but got very lucky and were able to secure a similar apartment with another charity for the next 2 months. The contributors to these two charities have provided a tremendous blessing to us during this time. We will forever add these two charities to our giving list! The apartment complex we are in has about 46 apartments, all filled with patients and caregivers of MD Anderson and other hospitals. Our current one is Hospitality Apartments and our next one is The Ballard House. I can't say enough good about them both. 

So, next time you write a check or send money online to a charity please know that your money will help someone in need. I hope you never need to be on the receiving end but if you do, I hope there is a charity there to meet your need and make life a little better for you. I know the two that we are using here in Houston have been a tremendous help and have taken a huge burden off of us so we can concentrate on getting her better.