Help for the Blair Family

To know our mom is to love her. She is friendly, giving, and as loving as they come. If you don’t personally know her, you’ve probably seen her around since our mom has served our community in countless ways. When we were younger, if we wanted to miss a day of school we had to run her Meals on Wheels route with her. During both “polar vortexes,” she helped plan and run heating shelters downtown. When our town flooded, she helped organize FEMA relief efforts and personally went door to door to inform people of available aid and hand-scrubbed walls with bleach to prevent mold. Every year she can be found in the high rise with our elderly community to ensure voter registration and tax rebates. She’s volunteered for Veteran benefits, parades, and countless local efforts. She has wholeheartedly given herself to this community without hesitation and has been a constant light to others.  Now, as her family, we ask for your help.

Recently our mom has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer (meaning that it has spread). While we are doing our best to support her and stay positive, there are some drastic changes that need to occur in order for us to be able to give it all we’ve got. Most prominently, we need to cover the loss of income that will occur once our mom stops working her second job as a bartender. The bar is a smoking bar and it’s plain and simple – she can’t be in there. Additionally, Christie just moved to Texas for work. Our mom needs Christie to be by her side, so she will be taking unpaid FMLA to be in Shamokin during this time. This is a major expense and since FMLA is unpaid, another loss of income. We will be using a portion of donations to ensure that Christie can be home and still pay her bills.

 

Here is a breakdown of how funds will be used:

1.       Allow Melissa to stop working 2nd job (she’s working 56+ hours per week currently)

2.       Cover excess medical bills/procedures and allow us to seek best treatment options

3.      Cover Christie's expenses while she takes an unpaid leave of absence from work. (This will be roughly $14,000. $2,000 will be needed within the first month alone. Please note that this has been discussed in detail and is the full desire of our mom. She needs Christie home, and the whole family needs to be together.)

4.       Help alleviate the expenses we will be sharing as a family (bills, groceries, necessary home repair, transportation, etc.)

 

If you are able, please consider donating and sharing this post. Additionally, we ask that she is not bombarded with questions/opinions/suggestions. It’s a bit overwhelming right now so please note that we are doing everything we can and would just simply appreciate love, support, and prayers.