Keep Payten & TigerLily Together

Help is desperately needed to keep this sweet little family together.  They are burying their mother and wife for Christmas this year.  Help their family stay together after that! Many people sponsor a child in a distant country every month. Others sponsor a family for Christmas presents and a Christmas dinner. 

On Dec. 13 in the middle of the day, my son called me in tears from Minnesota to tell me that his wife of 2 1/2 years had laid down with their 8 month old baby for a nap and died in her sleep. Linley could not be resuscitated. Apparently, her heart just stopped in her sleep. She hadn't talked about being extra tired, or in pain, or anything. She had a very mild form of MS and fatigue is part of it, so she usually takes an afternoon nap with the baby until it's time for their older daughter to come home from school. Nothing had happened unusual; they had talked this morning when he came home from work about plans for Christmas gifts for the kids.

They have a 9 year old handicapped daughter (Linley's daughter) who also has a more symptomatic form of MS, who was at school. He just adores her and they play so cute together. But because of her handicap, she does require some extra help with schoolwork each afternoon, and with other things in general, beyond what normal kids her age need; i.e. she wears leg braces, and needs help brushing her hair, tying shoes, etc. One of the reasons they live there is because of the school system and the excellent program it has for handicapped children. It is really helping Payten. He just told her Thursday night that her mom had died and gone to live with Jesus, but she doesn't really understand.

The baby had been nursing only. Just started some solid foods a couple weeks ago, and hates formula - wouldn't touch it. She hates the bottle too. She cried herself to sleep after 12 hours. Richard Christian has been feeding her babyfood and finally after lots of crying, TigerLily finally stopped fighting the bottle Friday and accepted the formula. 

They live in the tiny town of Bricelyn in the very south central part of Minnesota with about 400 people. They are both LDS, but have not been active since living there, so know no one from the branch there, which meets in a church about 45 minutes away, and is very small. Richard works as a factory supervisor in one of those dreaded jobs where he is indispensable, and on-call 24/7 because he's the only person there who know's how to repair all of the equipment if there's a malfunction or breakdown, literally. No kidding, a machine broke tonight and they shut down the factory until Richard Christian could come in or someone can come from the next closest factory to repair it. No pressure there. So they really don't have many friends there, and are just this little nuclear family alone out there.  He just doesn't know what the heck he's going to do.

They were so happy and loved each other so much. He is just so heartbroken, and so overwhelmed with what to do. He really doesn't make a lot of money at that job, not enough to pay for full time daycare. And if he did, when would he sleep? He can't trade with the only other shift supervisor - days. And in that very rural area, there aren't very many jobs to pick and choose from. Being young and starting out, they didn't have life insurance yet, or burial plots or funeral plans. Her parents work but don't really have savings, and we (his parents and step-father) are retired on SS but still work part-time to make it, struggling with their own medical costs.

As you can imagine, having to travel back to SLCto bury Linley where her family wanted her buried, short term air fare at Christmas time for him and the girls, all was very expensive. 

Formula costs a lot when they had planned on Linley's nursing for another 6 months at least. With Richard Christian's work schedule, his only recourse will be to hire a live-in nanny if he is to get any sleep at all, which is beyond his meager budget. Looking into it, that costs about $20K a year, even after providing room and board.

He desperately wants to be able to keep his family together with him. They love and need each other. This family is burying their wife and mother for Christmas. They are trying to stay together after that.

If you can only give once, please give what you can. If you can pledge and give monthly, please do that. Whatever you can do! This will effect this little family for eternity! I know Linley will be watching over and helping and blessing them from above. Help them stay together! 

Please share to get them as much help as possible! This will be an ongoing need!