Help Dr. Pam Afford Memory Care!

Dr. Pam Armstrong has dedicated her life to helping other people. She had a wonderful career as a Psychologist, working for government-run mental health clinics helping underserved families, while keeping a small private practice thriving. Her clients have been her life - there is a mutual love between them, and many have been like family.

Unfortunately, we had to close her practice as of May 1st this year due to a sudden uptick in symptoms from Parkinson's and Lewy Body Dementia that had been lying fairly dormant. Her initial incident of symptoms occurred near Easter of 2021, and during that time Dr. Pam had helped pick out an assisted living home that was safe, beautiful, and professionally run. It's not the cheapest home, but it's far from the most expensive. However, at that time she was in a much better physical and mental place - so the estimate for care was HALF of what it is today.

This Easter, Pam became disoriented in the early hours of the morning and forgot she was not supposed to take the stairs by herself. While family was upstairs asleep, she had a hallucination and began taking things upstairs from her room. On one of her trips, she fell down a few stairs and hit her head. Family found her at the bottom of the stairs, unable to get up. She started presenting right-side-favoring, almost strokelike symptoms. She went to the hospital on Monday April 18th, and has now been in rehab for over a month. She has lost over 50% of her mobility and cognition, and is using a wheelchair.

Pam needs the highest level of care at any facility. We have been looking for cheaper options, but what we really want is to let her be where she wants to be. Unfortunately, even with Pam paying into Long Term Care insurance at the highest level, Prudential only covers half of what we're being asked to pay. The cost is so high that we're in the red even after her pension and Social Security. She has no savings, because she was concentrating on paying off a large amount of debt over the past four years while living with her daughter. She mostly succeeded in paying off multiple credit cards and a large line of credit, but there is still some left. She has automatic payments coming out of her account in the amount of $1,030 a month.

We are so close to being able to afford to send her to the home she wants. We weren't able to prepare for this moment financially because Pam's decline was so sudden. We're in the red by only about $500 a month. Her very tiny family has given all they can - her only daughter has always worked in nonprofits and has a very small salary and no savings. Her 80-year-old retired sister in England has given a large lump sum to help cover the move-in fees, but it's still not enough. IF we were able to raise at least $10,000, we could pay off one of the credit cards completely and get rid of the $520 payment that is putting her in the red. She would be flat broke, but she could move in to her dream memory care facility, where the staff already knows and loves her.

We hope you'll consider giving just a few dollars towards the care of this lovely, warm woman. She's kind to everyone she meets, and always sees the best in everyone. It would mean we wouldn't have to scramble to try to find a cheaper place for her, where she wouldn't feel as safe.

THANK YOU!!!!