Help us help Cristina and Dan

Hi, we are Marisa and Ben.

We are 14-year-old twins who have been blessed to have a nanny as wonderful as Cristina. We lost our mom in 2015, and Cristina came into our lives to help our adoptive parents about a year after that, and she's been perfect ever since. She cooks the most delicious chicken cacciatore, folds all the laundry, hauls Ben and me to an excessive amount of sports and afterschool activities, and so much more. On top of all that, she never forgets our birthdays and writes us a card for every holiday.

Cristina is a wonderful woman who is going through a lot. After working her day job, she comes to our house and helps us out, only to go home and take care of her elderly mother and mother-in-law. Recently, unfortunately, everything has become much worse for her. Her car has broken down, she has had some friends pass away, and worse of all, her husband, a once healthy and active man, has become severely ill. After weeks of unexplained symptoms and multiple visits to the ER and various specialists, he was eventually diagnosed with Guillain-barré syndrome 6 months ago, and it has been an enormous struggle ever since. He is almost completely paralyzed and can't walk, and it got even worse once it traveled toward his arms. He can barely make a phone call to his wife from the hospital.

More recently, Dan developed a urinary tract infection and became septic. His fever climbed to an alarming 106 degrees and he nearly died. Last week, after an EMG, the doctors said his nerves were virtually destroyed. They are hoping with a new round of medication, perhaps he will be able to feel and maybe even walk again, but no one really knows. In the meanwhile, his wife Cristina continues to care for him, "the mothers" (as she affectionately calls her mother and her mother-in-law), and us when she can. She cannot work like she used to, and Dan cannot work at all. Her (now adult) son returned to NY to help them, but the burden is great and there is only so much they can do.

A once vibrant hard-working immigrant, who came to this country as a newly married young adult with nothing but the suitcase in her hand, Cristina now tells us that she has "never felt so overwhelmed and hopeless". Forced to leave her young son in Romania so that she could come here and set up a better life for him (which she and Dan succeeded in doing), she is now experiencing more strife and overwhelm than ever. She is one of these people who is hard-working, honest, appreciative, community-minded, and never gives up.

Please help us keep Cristina strong. She and Dan have a beautiful relationship and wonderful son. With the both of them by Dan's side we too are hopeful he will recover. Until then we really want to help them out and take some of the burdens of medical bills and out-of-office days off their backs. If we all could chip in a little bit to help the woman who helps everyone else, it would change her life. Please consider helping, and please send this on to anyone you think would like to contribute (please consider posting to Facebook, Instagram, wherever!). No amount is too small. Thank you for reading this.

With gratitude,

Marisa and Ben

P.S. The cover photo is of Cristina and her family just a year or two ago. The other one is Cristina with us at our B'nai Mitzvah. The black and white one is Cristina and Dan either just before or just after arriving here from Romania (we're not sure which).