Gary Looper's Heart Surgery

Hello Cookeville friends:

My name is Laurie Bolton. I want to tell you about my good friend Gary Looper. He is one of the nicest people I know. He has had a very rough year and could use some help, prayer, and encouragement. The short version is that he lost his wife a year ago to stage 4 cancer, is raising their 3-year-old grandson by himself, and has to have open heart surgery on April 20th. All of this was very unexpected and is complicating his already complicated life. He is overwhelmed. He needs help with unexpected expenses while he recovers which could take 6 weeks or more. (The longer version of the story is below.)

He has permitted me to share a part of his story. I met Gary through Donna Lynn Childress Looper who was one of our massage therapists at Wellspring Family Chiropractic back in the day. She and Gary were married on our property by Steve Chatman in 2016. Through a confluence of difficult events, Gary and Donna decided to adopt their grandson, Cruz, when he was about 6 months old in 2020. I know he is the joy of their lives.

Tragically, Donna got cancer and by the time they figured it out, it was stage 4. She passed away in Feb 2022 when Cruz was merely 2 years old. So Gary not only lost his precious wife a year ago, he is now a single parent to a 3-year-old. While he feels blessed to have Cruz, raising a 3-year-old when you are in your 20s is hard...in your late 50s, it is really hard. To make matters worse, he lost his stepmother in the last year as well as his dad about 6 weeks ago. He has had a very tough year.

Just recently, Gary began having some health problems. When he told me what was going on, I realized the seriousness and asked Jim the next steps. I ended up taking Gary to the ER (well 3 ERs) and he was diagnosed with heart trouble. After several tests and a heart cath later, Gary was told he has a faulty valve and must have open heart surgery on April 20th. This was completely unexpected and complicated an already very complicated situation. Gary is pretty much all Cruz has in the world.

I am hoping some of my friends at the River Community

Church or others in the community will join me in praying for Gary, encouraging him, and contributing to this GoFundMe to help with meals and unexpected expenses while he is recovering. He is having to take off work quite a bit to recover from surgery and that is barring any complications. Thank you so much for considering this.