Help Me Help My Mother

My name is Elizabeth Bezilla, and my mother is Rena Bezilla. For the past few years, my mother has been struggling with early-stage dementia. After my father, Lynn Bezilla, passed away in January 2022 I made the difficult decision to move back home to help as much as I could while continuing to work in DC. Unfortunately, my mother fell in mid-January while I was at work. I called our neighbor, who went in the house and found my mother on the floor with a bloody gash on her head and a broken femur. She spent two weeks at Shock Trauma in Baltimore and then two weeks at Complete Care at Multi Med Center in Towson. During this time, I took Paid Family Leave to use the full 12 weeks allowed, and I had to decide whether to have her go into Assisted Living or recover at home.

Unfortunately, mom was assessed as needing Memory Care, which was over 12K and unaffordable for us. Both the facility and her primary doctor have said she needs 24-hour care. I brought a live-in caregiver to stay with her for a month, which was 10K. That wiped out our savings. To add to the fun, in March I lost my job due to downsizing and, along with it, my health insurance. Washington Radiology went out of their way to fit in two biopsies for me before my insurance ran out at the end of March. Good news – they’re benign!

Although my mother has Long Term Care insurance, there is a 90-day waiting period until I can get reimbursed for care expenses. I need money to cover care expenses for three months in addition to the remaining fee for Shock Trauma and the ambulance to take her to Complete Care. Several of my friends and family have asked how they can help, so I’ve set up this GoFundMe to help us with the staggering costs of basic needs for my mom. I am grateful for any donations that will help us recover the costs of taking care for my mother.