Help For Laura A. Oliver’s Family
Donation protected
Please help the Oliver family keep Thomas and Jack alive for the next 15 months. Due to a “perfect storm” of medical emergencies, major health problems, and financial disaster, our family is no longer able to buy the medicine keeping Jack alive; nor, can we pay for the medical insurance and therapy sessions Thomas needs to survive.
My name is Laura A. Oliver (age 67). My partner is Jack Oliver (age 72). We are the proud parents of Thomas Oliver (age 21) and Rachel C. Oliver (age 31). Our family has lived in the same apartment complex in San Diego for over 35 years. Both of our children were born during the time we've lived here.
We've always made just enough money to get by, but never enough to have a down payment for a house. We were very happy to be able just to raise our two children. But we have recently lost all of our sources of income, except for a meager level of social security. We have exhausted all of our savings and maxed out all our credit. The Social Security we get isn’t enough to cover our rent, let alone pay for food or electricity.
So, we are facing eviction and homelessness on top of not being able to buy the lifesaving medical treatments to keep two of us alive. We are forced to ask for your help to, literally, stay alive for the next 15 months.
Different medical tragedies have struck three members of our family. I, Laura, am unemployed and permanently disabled due to serious brain injury (caused by hydrocephalus) that has destroyed most of my short term memory ability. Frequently, I have no memory of what has just happened, or what was just said to me, four or five minutes ago. Plus, I often suffer blinding head pain which sends me to bed for mid-day sleep as my only way (beside narcotic prescription drugs) of coping.
My partner, Jack, is also unemployed and permanently disabled. Jack has dangerous heart and blood pressure problems. He has experienced a series of separate heart attacks. The most recent one caused his cardiologist to admit him to the hospital on five minutes notice. Three other cardiologists, in that hospital, told Jack that 95% of people would have died during the last attack he experienced. Because of his heart conditions, Jack can’t perform physical work, but he’s done everything he can to keep this family afloat, which is, in itself, a full time job. These days, Jack must take very expensive heart medicine not covered by health insurance. Without it, the doctors say he will die. We can no longer afford to buy this medicine for him. We must ask for your help to keep him alive for the next fifteen months.
Thomas, Jack and I, Laura, all still live together in our apartment home. Rachel, our daughter, left home for college 12 years ago, and has been making her own way in the world ever since.
People who know our family, may know that Rachel is now well on her way to becoming a full-fledged medical doctor. She has one more year to go in the required 3-year process of working as a “resident.” But, as a resident, she makes very little money. Eventually, her income will substantially increase when she is finally hired by some health care system as a full doctor; but there’s no certainty yet about what may happen in the future. Rachel has already gone deeply into debt to help her family survive the previous year. She, now, has no further ability to help us over the coming 15 months.
Sadly, our son, Thomas, is the third disabled member of our family. He suffers from multiple mental health issues which he has battled ever since middle school. Thomas had an Individualized Education Program (an I.E.P.) for disabled students, all throughout high school. In the first two years of high school, Thomas did not pass many courses. In his Junior and Senior years, however, he was in an exclusive program for disabled students, which helped Thomas flourish and do extremely well. So well, in fact, that in his graduating class of 360 students, he was one of just four students chosen to give a speech at the final ceremony! Thomas graduated from high school three years ago, but has been unable to go to college because of our family’s inability to pay for it.
Thomas has been diagnosed as bipolar, and with “major depressive disorder.” Thomas is often haunted by thoughts about ending his feelings of hopelessness by ending his life. Over the years, he has been treated by a psychiatrist and by several therapists who were connected with the public school system. Those many therapy sessions helped greatly. But they basically stopped after he graduated because hardly any private therapists accepted his insurance, and the few who did had no openings for new patients. Now, we are unable to even pay for his health insurance any longer. If we had the resources, we could engage nearly any therapist via direct cash payment.
Thomas has been in and out of emergency rooms on a number of occasions during the last several years, because of days or nights when his verbal expressions of that old desire to harm himself became too forceful and too imminent sounding. The most recent such occasion was four months ago, in March of 2020. Always, when he would finally be released from such situations, the doctor who treated him advised us that Thomas NEEDED to go to therapy as often as possible. I ask for your help so Thomas can get the counseling he wants and desperately needs over the next 15 months.
I ask you for your generous help so our family can pay our rent, and other living expenses; and, especially, our medical and health insurance bills, during the next 15 months until we might be better situated to pay our own way. I will be eternally grateful for any amount you can spare to help our family survive. You will be helping to save two, and, probably, three lives! Thank you for reading this, and thank you for caring, and for your support.
My name is Laura A. Oliver (age 67). My partner is Jack Oliver (age 72). We are the proud parents of Thomas Oliver (age 21) and Rachel C. Oliver (age 31). Our family has lived in the same apartment complex in San Diego for over 35 years. Both of our children were born during the time we've lived here.
We've always made just enough money to get by, but never enough to have a down payment for a house. We were very happy to be able just to raise our two children. But we have recently lost all of our sources of income, except for a meager level of social security. We have exhausted all of our savings and maxed out all our credit. The Social Security we get isn’t enough to cover our rent, let alone pay for food or electricity.
So, we are facing eviction and homelessness on top of not being able to buy the lifesaving medical treatments to keep two of us alive. We are forced to ask for your help to, literally, stay alive for the next 15 months.
Different medical tragedies have struck three members of our family. I, Laura, am unemployed and permanently disabled due to serious brain injury (caused by hydrocephalus) that has destroyed most of my short term memory ability. Frequently, I have no memory of what has just happened, or what was just said to me, four or five minutes ago. Plus, I often suffer blinding head pain which sends me to bed for mid-day sleep as my only way (beside narcotic prescription drugs) of coping.
My partner, Jack, is also unemployed and permanently disabled. Jack has dangerous heart and blood pressure problems. He has experienced a series of separate heart attacks. The most recent one caused his cardiologist to admit him to the hospital on five minutes notice. Three other cardiologists, in that hospital, told Jack that 95% of people would have died during the last attack he experienced. Because of his heart conditions, Jack can’t perform physical work, but he’s done everything he can to keep this family afloat, which is, in itself, a full time job. These days, Jack must take very expensive heart medicine not covered by health insurance. Without it, the doctors say he will die. We can no longer afford to buy this medicine for him. We must ask for your help to keep him alive for the next fifteen months.
Thomas, Jack and I, Laura, all still live together in our apartment home. Rachel, our daughter, left home for college 12 years ago, and has been making her own way in the world ever since.
People who know our family, may know that Rachel is now well on her way to becoming a full-fledged medical doctor. She has one more year to go in the required 3-year process of working as a “resident.” But, as a resident, she makes very little money. Eventually, her income will substantially increase when she is finally hired by some health care system as a full doctor; but there’s no certainty yet about what may happen in the future. Rachel has already gone deeply into debt to help her family survive the previous year. She, now, has no further ability to help us over the coming 15 months.
Sadly, our son, Thomas, is the third disabled member of our family. He suffers from multiple mental health issues which he has battled ever since middle school. Thomas had an Individualized Education Program (an I.E.P.) for disabled students, all throughout high school. In the first two years of high school, Thomas did not pass many courses. In his Junior and Senior years, however, he was in an exclusive program for disabled students, which helped Thomas flourish and do extremely well. So well, in fact, that in his graduating class of 360 students, he was one of just four students chosen to give a speech at the final ceremony! Thomas graduated from high school three years ago, but has been unable to go to college because of our family’s inability to pay for it.
Thomas has been diagnosed as bipolar, and with “major depressive disorder.” Thomas is often haunted by thoughts about ending his feelings of hopelessness by ending his life. Over the years, he has been treated by a psychiatrist and by several therapists who were connected with the public school system. Those many therapy sessions helped greatly. But they basically stopped after he graduated because hardly any private therapists accepted his insurance, and the few who did had no openings for new patients. Now, we are unable to even pay for his health insurance any longer. If we had the resources, we could engage nearly any therapist via direct cash payment.
Thomas has been in and out of emergency rooms on a number of occasions during the last several years, because of days or nights when his verbal expressions of that old desire to harm himself became too forceful and too imminent sounding. The most recent such occasion was four months ago, in March of 2020. Always, when he would finally be released from such situations, the doctor who treated him advised us that Thomas NEEDED to go to therapy as often as possible. I ask for your help so Thomas can get the counseling he wants and desperately needs over the next 15 months.
I ask you for your generous help so our family can pay our rent, and other living expenses; and, especially, our medical and health insurance bills, during the next 15 months until we might be better situated to pay our own way. I will be eternally grateful for any amount you can spare to help our family survive. You will be helping to save two, and, probably, three lives! Thank you for reading this, and thank you for caring, and for your support.
Fundraising team: The Oliver Family (5)
Laura Oliver
Organizer
San Diego, CA
Aeschylus Oliver
Team member
Jack Oliver
Team member
Lash Oliver
Team member
Rachel Oliver
Team member