Food and necessities for a struggling senior citizen

Henre Ette is a widowed woman in her 80's that I met by chance 4 years ago through an email list called Freecycle. At the time, I was struggling to make ends meet for my growing family and she offered to save me the coupons from the Sunday newspapers that she and her neighbors would not use. Every Sunday, I drive to Henre Ette's house to visit her and pick up the coupons that she has collected for me. Shortly after meeting a friendship developed and I now consider her one of my closest friends and my "adopted grandma". I look forward to sitting around her kitchen table catching up about the week and I know she looks forward to it all week too. She has supported me through illness, major surgery, divorce, multiple moves, a new career, etc.

Henre Ette lives off of a meager social security payment and inevitably runs out of money for necessities every month. She is extremely frugal and resourceful, but there is simply not enough to cover her needs. This year she has forgone important medical tests and procedures because she cannot afford the co-pays. Her vehicle is in desperate need of repair- two of the tires are dangerously dry rotted, her air conditioning is out (pretty much a necessity during Arizona summers!), and her windshield wipers are inoperable, making it dangerous for her to get caught out during a storm. In addition to that, she just received word that her Food Stamps are being cut from $86 a month to $16 a month. On the current amount of $86/month, she barely scrapes by, and the thought of being another $70 a month behind is terrifying to her.

Henre Ette is an amazing woman and I would love to help take a bit of stress off of her this year. Our goal is $2000 which will supplement her food budget $100 a month for a year, make car repairs in the amount of $500, and $300 for the medical tests that she has forgone because of budget constraints. This would be HUGE for her.

I am asking that any of my friends or family who would usually purchase Christmas gifts for my family instead donate to this fund- nothing would make us happier than to be able to help our friend and "grandma" have a less stressful 2013.