Help during Missy's long COVID recovery

To know Missy is a blessing; to be loved by Missy is a gift that can never be repaid or questioned. She’s a perfect mixture of hope, drive, kindness and snark, with a backbone of steely determination and a dash of stubbornness.

On Tuesday February 16, 2021 I hadn’t heard from Missy in hours: she usually checks in every morning with an exhaustive to-do list. That morning was different: we spoke late, and she uttered the fateful words “I can’t breathe, I think I have COVID-19.” A few days later Missy was in the hospital COVID-19 ICU and her life was forever changed.

Now Missy is in the fight for her life. Her hospital stay, medicine, transportation needs are far beyond Missy’s means and she is going to need all the financial and emotional support we can give her.

Missy is the primary caregiver for her elderly mom. She is a tireless campaigner, telephone canvasser and a door-to-door warrior.  While juggling all that, if Missy senses that one of her friends may be hurting she takes the time to provide emotional, physical or financial support without question.

She tends to a community garden each summer that feeds hundreds at the local food shelter.  She sewed masks for anyone who needed one when COVID struck last year. She quietly and tirelessly helps those in need; I’m hearing stories from people she helped, but she never uttered a word. Tireless and humble to the end, we had to lobby her to do this GoFundMe at all.

Missy is our guiding star. She shines her beacon on what we should fight for and we dutifully mount up and follow her lead: whether in local causes, political ones, or just human kindness. Missy has quietly, modestly helped people through thick and thin; now it’s our turn to help her.

If you can donate to Missy it’s greatly appreciated; help us get our captain back.