Joyce Needs Our Help
Donation protected
JOYCE'S STORY: Her stage name was Joyce Vonn (her real name is Joyce Shepherd), and she was the very first lead vocalist for The Follies’ Berger at the Tropicana Hotel, the lead vocalist in the Hello Hollywood Production, as well as leading her own show “Joyce Vonn & The Chasers” on the Las Vegas strip, performing with Sam Butera, Roger Williams, Louis Prima, and others from the1950's - late 1980's.
She is also my wonderful mother; she turned 82 years in May.
When my brother (her eldest son) died in a car accident in 1978, and then she lost her husband due to suicide, my mother’s world was completely turned upside down – she was never the same. The trauma from such tremendous loss in her life affected her terribly and as a coping mechanism, she started to collect and keep everything and anything she could find – as if no one could take those away from her if she kept them in her home. This horrible hoarding disease had completely took over her life and she would not let us in to help her out.
WHAT HAD TO BE DONE: Two months ago, we felt that my mother’s life was in great danger, and so we reached out to the Elder Protective Services to help us intervene on her behalf. To our great relief, the city of Las Vegas stepped in and assigned amazing social workers that have helped us by giving my mother deadlines to get her home cleaned out, make it safe and livable again.
Due to the severity of her home, the city would normally have removed her immediately, and put a 30 day condemn notice if we weren’t there, ready to take huge steps to make her home livable again. She was in a dire life & health threatening situation. She has been lacking essentials for years, and didn't want anyone to know that she was suffering. She had no working plumbing at all in either of her bathrooms, there are water leaks all throughout the house, including from the roof; everything has completely broken down and nobody would enter her house to fix anything due to the severity of the hoarding conditions.
WHAT WE'VE BEEN DOING: For the past 8 weeks, my wife Michelle and I have been doing massive amounts of labor ourselves, and hiring companies to come in and do the clean out. We’ve emptied the entire house to reveal all of the corrosion, water damage, mice infestations, scorpions, black widows, roaches, etc. We’ve filled 9 thirty-yard dumpsters with everything my mother owned as well as the contents of what she collected and kept in her home over the years. And being that we had a timeline to get most of it done, we’ve had to utilize large amounts of credit to get as far as we have so far.
This has been extremely traumatic for my mother, knowing 82 years of her life has been thrown into dumpsters, but we’ve been reassuring her this was necessary so she could keep her home of 48 years, the home that she raised us boys in, and most importantly, for her health and well-being.
Michelle and I have been trying to work and replace as much as we possibly can on our own. The expense of gutting my mother’s house alone was nearly $4,000 for the 9 dumpsters, and over $7,000 for the 2 different companies that we hired to come in and clean everything out. And so far, we’ve purchased nearly $4,000 in home supplies to do the repairs, yet we are still SO far from done.
OUR PLEA: We’ve exhausted all of our resources and are at a loss on how to fund the rest of the work that needs done. Pretty much everything in the house needs to be replaced (kitchen cabinets, appliances, bathroom cabinets, doors, windows, floors, blinds, paint, etc). We’ve never asked for this kind of help from anyone before, but here we are, humbly reaching out to ask for your help on my mother's behalf; this is a huge step in gaining her life and health back. We appreciate anything you may be able to give (whether it be funds, labor, or donated materials) and we thank you so much in advance for your help and kindness.
God bless you!
1st Acknowledgement: Thank you also to Casa Grande for sending us your young men to help clean out the yard and back porch. We can't thank you enough!
2nd Acknowledgement: We have had some amazing volunteers from The Crossing Church step in to help (Micha Czanik, Don & Charlotte Graves, Bob David, Troy Oglesbee, John, Ane & Audrey English, Albert Tabola, Dick Storm, Jackie Garis, Steven Lee, Michael Chakedis, and Bob Barnett) and we have been blown away by their generosity in donating their time and labor. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
* If you could, we would greatly appreciate it if you could share this link with your family and friends:
https://www.gofundme.com/6u93p-help-joyce-keep-her-home
Thank you!
* If an 'Error' message pops up when you donate, sometimes you just need to switch browsers. Google Chrome seems to work great! :)
She is also my wonderful mother; she turned 82 years in May.
When my brother (her eldest son) died in a car accident in 1978, and then she lost her husband due to suicide, my mother’s world was completely turned upside down – she was never the same. The trauma from such tremendous loss in her life affected her terribly and as a coping mechanism, she started to collect and keep everything and anything she could find – as if no one could take those away from her if she kept them in her home. This horrible hoarding disease had completely took over her life and she would not let us in to help her out.
WHAT HAD TO BE DONE: Two months ago, we felt that my mother’s life was in great danger, and so we reached out to the Elder Protective Services to help us intervene on her behalf. To our great relief, the city of Las Vegas stepped in and assigned amazing social workers that have helped us by giving my mother deadlines to get her home cleaned out, make it safe and livable again.
Due to the severity of her home, the city would normally have removed her immediately, and put a 30 day condemn notice if we weren’t there, ready to take huge steps to make her home livable again. She was in a dire life & health threatening situation. She has been lacking essentials for years, and didn't want anyone to know that she was suffering. She had no working plumbing at all in either of her bathrooms, there are water leaks all throughout the house, including from the roof; everything has completely broken down and nobody would enter her house to fix anything due to the severity of the hoarding conditions.
WHAT WE'VE BEEN DOING: For the past 8 weeks, my wife Michelle and I have been doing massive amounts of labor ourselves, and hiring companies to come in and do the clean out. We’ve emptied the entire house to reveal all of the corrosion, water damage, mice infestations, scorpions, black widows, roaches, etc. We’ve filled 9 thirty-yard dumpsters with everything my mother owned as well as the contents of what she collected and kept in her home over the years. And being that we had a timeline to get most of it done, we’ve had to utilize large amounts of credit to get as far as we have so far.
This has been extremely traumatic for my mother, knowing 82 years of her life has been thrown into dumpsters, but we’ve been reassuring her this was necessary so she could keep her home of 48 years, the home that she raised us boys in, and most importantly, for her health and well-being.
Michelle and I have been trying to work and replace as much as we possibly can on our own. The expense of gutting my mother’s house alone was nearly $4,000 for the 9 dumpsters, and over $7,000 for the 2 different companies that we hired to come in and clean everything out. And so far, we’ve purchased nearly $4,000 in home supplies to do the repairs, yet we are still SO far from done.
OUR PLEA: We’ve exhausted all of our resources and are at a loss on how to fund the rest of the work that needs done. Pretty much everything in the house needs to be replaced (kitchen cabinets, appliances, bathroom cabinets, doors, windows, floors, blinds, paint, etc). We’ve never asked for this kind of help from anyone before, but here we are, humbly reaching out to ask for your help on my mother's behalf; this is a huge step in gaining her life and health back. We appreciate anything you may be able to give (whether it be funds, labor, or donated materials) and we thank you so much in advance for your help and kindness.
God bless you!
1st Acknowledgement: Thank you also to Casa Grande for sending us your young men to help clean out the yard and back porch. We can't thank you enough!
2nd Acknowledgement: We have had some amazing volunteers from The Crossing Church step in to help (Micha Czanik, Don & Charlotte Graves, Bob David, Troy Oglesbee, John, Ane & Audrey English, Albert Tabola, Dick Storm, Jackie Garis, Steven Lee, Michael Chakedis, and Bob Barnett) and we have been blown away by their generosity in donating their time and labor. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
* If you could, we would greatly appreciate it if you could share this link with your family and friends:
https://www.gofundme.com/6u93p-help-joyce-keep-her-home
Thank you!
* If an 'Error' message pops up when you donate, sometimes you just need to switch browsers. Google Chrome seems to work great! :)
Organizer
Vance Shepherd
Organizer
Las Vegas, NV