Shelly needs community's help ... Jose can't do it alone

I'm Mike Weland, a resident at the Boundary County Restorium assisted living facility in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, where Shelly isn't just a personal care assistant, helping residents maintain as much independence as they are able, but family, bringing laughter and welcome company along with meals, meds, and clean clothes. Working four 12-hour and one four-hour graveyard shift each week, Shelly also provides home care for as many as four families in her off time each week on top of tending the home she shares with an array of pets, many of them critters with nowhere else to go.

On Wednesday, September 18, Shelly was off to the kennel to feed her two huskies, walking a trail where a number of trees had just been pulled using heavy equipment, leaving the path holed and rutted. With the fall of darkness, she stepped off into an unseen hole, came down hard on her left foot, and heard a terrible snap as what she describes as the worst pain she's ever felt washed over her.

Her phone, with one percent charge, went unanswered and died. She screamed for help for more than two hours before coming to grips with the fact she was alone.

With no options remaining, she began crawling, pulling herself through waves of pain each time her dragged left foot was bumped, brushed, or jostled through the darkness until at last she reached the gravel of her driveway. She crawled on, rocks cutting into her hands and knees, until she reached her pickup... a standard she had no hope of driving.

Still, so near the end of her endurance, she somehow pulled herself up and into the cab, where she put her phone on a charger, resting as best she could until it had taken sufficient charge to make a call.

She didn't call 911, knowing she wouldn't be allowed to bring two pets who couldn't stay alone, including her wizened old Chihuahua, Jose Cuervo. Instead, she called one of the friends she helps, who came to the rescue.

Shelly underwent emergency surgery Thursday morning to reattach her nearly detached left foot, connected to her ankle by skin a whisker away from being pierced by shattered bone. She was discharged a short time later to go home and rest. Instead, she insisted on stopping in at the Restorium to let administrator Janay Smith know she'd need a few days off.

In six to eight weeks, Shelly’s expected to be fitted with a trauma boot and knee scooter to allow her to return to work on a very limited basis.

Shelly isn't asking for help. To the contrary, the support she's already been spontaneously afforded is both amazing to her and unexpected.

"I've heard of it," she said, "but I've never seen it. And I've only lived here two years! Hardly anyone knows who I am... why should people help me?"

Why do you work so hard and always do more than you have to, even when we get cranky or upset?

"Because I love what I do and you're my neighbors... my family!"

Welcome to the Boundary County Community, Shelly, and thank you. You don't have to prove that you're a good neighbor. You just have to be one.

People who don't yet know the heart of this community can be forgiven for seeing a GoFundMe account such as this and assuming someone is asking for help when in truth it's nothing like that.

As president of the Restorium Resident's Council, I share that this fundraiser came about on the hopes and wishes of a number of residents who, having given what we can, want to let neighbors know of an opportunity to help a neighbor who will appreciate a neighborly helping hand.