Years ago, to help others in need our brother, Joe, and his wife, Maria, started a non-profit (a branch of Sprout). It would take pages and pages to list those they have helped. But now, Joe and Maria are the ones in need.
Diagnosed with high grade bladder cancer, Maria has been handling this for a year, and I say “handling” rather than “fighting” because her unshakable faith gives her a rock to stand on above turbulent waters and battering winds with little fear of death.
Our brother Joe, whose hands have been crippled since his early 30s, is disabled and unable to help Maria with her delicate medical needs. With Maria’s cancer, she is no longer able to work. She now weighs only 80 some pounds (though she was always a tiny, beautiful woman, inside and out).
They are losing their house in Florida and Joe has travelled back to Maria’s home city of Fall River, where he has secured a place for them to live in an apartment with relatives. Now, he needs to bring Maria and their small 8 foot long pod of belongings up from Florida so they can finally be together (Maria has been undergoing cancer treatment in Florida). Her doctors have given her permission to fly home.
Our family has always been blessed. There are six of us siblings who have loved each other for well over half a century through all life’s pleasures and pains. We don’t always agree or believe in the same things, but we never stop loving and supporting each other. So, the five of us are reaching out on behalf of our brother and “sister” to all those who love us, and especially love Joe and Maria, to help financially for an unsure future. This fundraiser is to reunite Joe and Maria and for Maria’s ongoing cancer treatments to hopefully prolong her life.
My siblings and I are unable to financially do this alone, so we humbly ask for help from our friends.
