Johnny & Tammy Day Need Our Support

My dad has worked nearly his entire life. Since he was a teenager when he'd take any odd job he could find, into adulthood when he found a real career in the automotive industry. From what I understand he started in a wash bay at a dealership in his early 20's, worked hard there to learn his trade and become a mechanic, was a mechanic for years before becoming a service writer later in life. A position he would only leave to try and earn just a little more in another career to help take care of my disabled mother who has struggled for the last half of her life with multiple issues including lupus and autoimmune disorders.

His former customers all adore him. As they well should. He would go above and beyond for every single one of them, no matter their issue. You can't go out in public with him without running into at least three or four people he's helped through the years who make a point to go out of their way to say hello and give him a hug or a handshake. It wasn't just his customers that could depend on him, it was also his family. Even his in-laws. If there was work that needed done, if my aunt or uncles or mamaw or even just a close family friend needed a handyman for any reason they knew Johnny was only a phone call away. He never complained. Helping people seemed to give him life. Purpose. Knowing his customers were satisfied and his family was taken care of is damn near all that has ever mattered to him.

Unfortunately, he lost his job to covid. As if that wasn't enough, he had a nasty fall last August that practically destroyed his shoulder and now, due to some recent (as yet undiagnosed, but treatment is ongoing) medical issues, he's starting to have trouble walking or even controlling his hands. Doctor speculation is pointing to MS, but we don't know that for sure yet.

At first he qualified for emergency unemployment. My parents were struggling, but with what little he got from unemployment mixed with what little my mom gets for disability, they could still get by. Barely, mind you. But they made it work. Over the last few months his health has gotten worse. He is in no condition to return to any kind of work, which means he no longer qualifies for unemployment. He can't get approved for disability without some sort of official diagnosis, and legal representation has let him know that that process for approval could take up to a year. He and my mother are in a bind. A bind neither of them deserve to be in. A man who has worked his hands to the bone his entire life should not be made to struggle, yet here we are.

If you know my parents you know they're too proud to ask for this kind of help on their own. That's why I'm putting their story out there. That's why I'm asking, to anyone and everyone who has known my dad and fallen in love with his gold toothed grin, to anyone who has known my mom and saw her struggles for the last half of her life but know how big her heart is and how much she genuinely cares for others, please please please let's do everything we can to help them. To make sure they don't lose the house my dad worked his whole life for. To make sure they can afford to travel without worry to and from doctors appointments across eastern kentucky from Pikeville, to Paintsville, to Ashland and anywhere else they get sent. To make sure they're never worried about when or where their next meal might come from.

They need us now more than ever.