Bess Rattray needs our help

Bess is one of my oldest friends. I think we were 5 when we met. If you are lucky enough to be friends with her or work with her, you already know how generous and hard-working she is. She does so much, for so many. She is also, brilliant, funny, a devoted parent, etc. The list goes on indefinitely.

On June 6th, Bess had a life-threatening medical emergency — which began with a five-hour emergency abdominal surgery (removal of a section of her intestines and a general re-arranging inside the abdominal cavity), and then, unfortunately, continued over the course of some five weeks with a series of complications and setbacks. The saga stretched into mid-July and included a second surgery, blood transfusions, infections, a total of three weeks in the hospital . . . a real ordeal. She finally seems to be on the mend, thrilled to be alive, and feeling good, but is not out of the woods yet.

What she can't do is return to work, for at least two months. Bess had been working on a farm —a nonprofit that grows food for food pantries — and that's not possible for some while. The last thing she needs to be worried about right now is her loss of income. Bills are piling up. She's a single mom (who, as she would say herself, unfortunately made her career in the least profitable profession in the world, print journalism). She needs a helping hand to get her, and her two teenage kids, through the next two months.

If you know Bess, you know how much of her life is spent helping others. She's a volunteer E.M.T. who has devoted many days and nights to serving others in the worst moments of their lives. In her spare time, she volunteers to run a nonprofit devoted to returning community spaces to Main Street. Whenever there's a disaster or crisis, she's the person to organize a fundraiser (whether it's famine-relief, giving to strangers in Ukraine, or running a GoFundMe for another local family caught between a rock and a hard place). Bess is always giving. Baking a cake for someone's birthday, driving to rescue someone with a flat tire. She really deserves to be on the receiving end of the same kind of care!

Please donate what you can. Our minimal goal is $12,000 to cover her family's expenses through September. Without the stress of worrying about how to make ends meet, she can fully focus on recovery and getting back to serving the rest of us.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

Antonia Koenig