Help for Edwina

My name is Joe Mellen, and Edwina Wall Howe, a good friend and a personal hero of mine, experienced a great tragedy on Sept 2, when she unexpectedly lost the love of her life and became a widow with a 4-year-old son.

Greg Howe was a wonderful man. He was an attentive father. He was a loving and supportive husband. And he was a loyal friend. I knew Greg through Edwina, and I will always remember him with a smile on his face. He was one of those special people with a “resting happy face.” Greg had a soft smile that was always turned on.

He died unexpectedly in his sleep, and this Go Fund Me is for his widow and son. The purpose is to help this amazing woman transition to her new reality of being a single parent with a single income. We all know the irony that the less you have in this world, the more expensive the world is. She lost an income while gaining added expenses for additional childcare. They just purchased their condo this year to raise their family. I hope this Go Fund Me can help with all the bills, including mortgage, childcare and medical bills and give her something extra, including peace of mind.

I met Edwina when we were both working as standardized patients, and she quickly became one of my favorite people. She is the person we tell our children to be. She is generous. She is honest. She is hardworking. She is grateful. She is accepting. She is unapologetically uniquely herself.

Edwina taught me never to say, “I wish I could help, but …” and instead say, “I can help.” (Notice the period at the end of the statement).

Edwina is generous even when she has little in terms of money or in terms of time.

Her stories are not mine to tell, but I can tell you that she gives even when she has little, both in terms of money and in terms of time. I can also tell how she inspires me and has made me a better person.

Here is a story about how she made the world a better place by inspiring me to be a better person.

About five years ago, a friend of mine rented a parking space from an older woman. I would see this woman on dog walks, and since my dog was older and walked slowly, we would sometimes walk together and visit. That was the extent of our relationship. She had no family and ended up in a hospital due to memory issues and was forced, by the state, to move into a nursing home. I remember thinking, “Edwina would step up and help this woman.” So I attempted to become this woman’s guardian. That didn’t work out. But, I did go to court, and I was put on some legal paperwork to monitor the sale of her home. I also became a “point person” for a time between her and her guardian from the state and the social worker from the nursing home.

I would never have gotten that involved with someone I barely knew if I hadn’t met Edwina. She made me a better person.

She is hard working. She started and finished college in her 30s. She and her husband have always lived within their means. They saved, and when they were ready, they purchased a condo, believing there would be two incomes.

I remember when Edwina met Greg. They met at a New Year’s Eve party hosted at a Comic Book Store. And later, they married at that store. She and Greg did it their way, and we dressed in Fallout Outfits for a Klingon wedding. That should have been the start of a very long love story, not one ending in tragedy.

She is the most deserving person I know for help. She has helped so many people in her life and has been paying it forward since I met her.

Please contribute what you can.

And please let Edwina inspire you like she inspires me by saying, (with a period), “I can help.” as often as possible.