Gabor, Holocaust Survivor With Alzheimer's Needs Help

My friend Gabor, one of the most kind-hearted men I have ever met, is facing a menacing foe with courage and heart. But that is not going to be enough - he and his family need help to provide Gabor with the care he deserves.

Some Background

I met Gabor three years ago when I started dating his daughter, Viki. At the time, he was showing early signs of dementia. I feel fortunate to have gotten to know Gabor before his disease progressed too far. In the last three years, Gabor’s condition has worsened significantly. He has become increasingly less independent as his memory and cognitive functions rapidly declined. He has been living with his girlfriend in her third-floor walk-up apartment. Unfortunately, everything changed drastically on February 11th, 2023 when Gabor fell and broke his neck.

After a hospital stay, he was transferred to a rehab facility for 10 days and from there he was transferred to a memory care unit where he currently is. He will require supervision and 24/7 care for the rest of his life. The cost of this type of care - whether at home or in a facility, is astronomical. His children have been risking their jobs to be at his side nearly every day since the fall, but they simply cannot bear the cost alone. Gabor and his family need help.

About Gabor - A True Survivor

Gabor was born to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary in 1938, just on the brink of WWII. The first eight years of his life were spent in a war zone while he and his family hid out of sight, scaling rooves and hiding in walls and basements to survive. His father died in a Nazi camp in Ukraine in 1942. Gabor’s firsthand stories are captivating, at times horrific. One story that I can’t forget is when he told me about how he and his mother came within inches of being shot and dumped in the Danube, along with many other Jewish families. Only his mother’s courage and steely grit somehow guided her toward a small ditch to hide from the killers. Thanks to his mother’s savviness, Gabor narrowly escaped Nazi extermination. At age 18, Gabor participated in the famous 1956 uprising against the communist army.

Gabor lost his beloved wife to addiction which resulted from heavy opioid use after a battle with cancer. He was left to raise their two children alone under extremely challenging circumstances.

Early in his career, Gabor taught himself basic proficiency in several languages. His increasing awareness of the West motivated him to work hard to find a way out of Hungary. His firsthand experience with the risks and frightening reality of unaddressed depression and addiction led him to study psychology. His studies enabled his transition from his hotel jobs to becoming a psychologist, later focusing on counseling and therapeutic solutions for addiction.

In 1991, Gabor and his two children were offered a path to emigrate from Hungary to Colorado. They arrived in the US with virtually nothing. Having spent 50+ years in a communist country, he had a very limited understanding of capitalism. Concepts like retirement savings and the stock market were completely foreign to him and his family. Gabor worked full-time at an addiction recovery center until he was 67, and then part-time until he was 75. His grown children, Viki and Andy, have been working hard to pull themselves out of poverty and are just starting to gain some ground.

The Problem in a Nutshell

Gabor’s children are now facing an estimated $8,000 cost each month over the next year to provide the medically necessary care and appropriate housing for Gabor. It will take only a few months to completely bankrupt Gabor and about a year to erase the whole family’s combined savings. The number of families facing bankruptcy while paying for Alzheimer’s/dementia care not covered by our current healthcare system is staggering. We don’t want this to happen to Gabor and his family.

So much of Gabor and his family’s life has been about survival. It would mean so much to me to see Gabor and his children spend the last years of his life focusing not on survival, but on the most important things: Gabor's dignity, and the time they have left together.

Final Thoughts

With Viki and Andy’s permission, and on their behalf, I am turning to those who know and love Gabor and his family, and those who care to help even if they have never met him. If you have been blessed with some financial resources, small or great, please come together with us for achieving our goal. His family and I appreciate your consideration.

With Gratitude,

Billy Mahoney