Help Lorelai and Amanda with Parent's Recovery

On Sunday, June 19th, Andrew and Kristy MacKenzie were in a motorcycle collision coming back from a father's day celebration with family. They were driving home when a driver unfamiliar with the roads in the area ran a stop sign. It is no surprise that two humans are no match for a car. But Andrew and Kristy, just like their entire family, are fighters. Andrew was airlifted from the scene to UVA for emergency treatment, and his wife, Kristy, was first transported to RMH but soon followed him. They are both in the ICU at UVA, both sedated and on ventilators (update: Kristy has fortunately been taken off the breathing tube but Andrew is still on the ventilator), and both have severe injuries with a long recovery ahead. But what we're most thankful for at this moment in time is that they both have recoveries in their futures.

Andrew and Kristy have two daughters, Lorelai and Amanda, who have been with them since being notified of the accident. Both are mothers to young children and dropped everything they were doing to rush to the hospital to be by their parents' sides (at first in a waiting room and now thankfully actually by their sides in their separate ICU rooms), with no time to pack necessities and no idea what their next days, weeks, months may look like.

Lorelai has a 10-month-old and her husband has been battling stage 4 colon cancer this year. He is still undergoing treatments every 2-weeks, including traveling to New York for chemo and scans, which makes her current logistics of being away from home and primary caretaker even more challenging. On days that her husband is not receiving and recovering from chemo, he’s working, so their child is with her at their hotel stay. Amanda has a 7-year old and her source of income demands that she be present at the restaurant she works at. Her partner has been incredible support to the family but also does not have unlimited PTO and they’re facing the challenge of having him present or maintaining income for their household.

If you can, please join us in helping those two daughters stay by their parents' sides during this challenging time and continue to serve as their medical liaisons. These donations will help to go toward: hotel stays (with an unknown timeline) allowing them to stay near the hospital to visit daily, groceries and cafeteria meals, clothes and toiletries, regular monthly bills because not all jobs have PTO and bills unfortunately do not pause, childcare and pet sitters, diapers, fuel and rideshares, and so on. And of course, ultimately, those unexpected costs that none of us can predict.

For all of us who know this family intimately, they've had a challenging few years. And Andrew and Kristy have been such a support for both of their daughters’ families, loving to be able to be actively involved grandparents and helping to be caretakers since the grandkids were born. Let's help support these daughters now as they return that unconditional support to their parents through this time of recovery. This page will most likely be expanded to continue helping the Mackenzie family as more becomes known about continued medical care and coverage, but for right now it will be focused on helping to cover the out-of-pocket expenses the family is facing just to be with their loved ones.

We’ll continue to update as things progress. If you cannot contribute financially at this time, helping spread the word is beyond appreciated.