Support Laura Emmert's Recovery

Hi Everyone,

On October 17, my 79 year old mom, Laura Emmert, had a fall in her house. Thankfully, the parents of a couple of the kids that she had in her preschool were there to immediately attend to her and a neighbor was able to be with her in the ambulance. She hit her head really hard, has no memory of the accident, and has spent the last couple of weeks in the hospital with a minor skull fracture, a brain bleed and serious concussion symptoms. There were other medical issues exacerbated by the head injury. She recently has come home and is now recovering surrounded by her plants and pets. As with any concussion, we don’t know how long the recovery will take or if there will be any lingering symptoms, but she lived a very healthy, active life, so we are hoping that things will resolve positively. However, because of the uncertainty around the healing process, she has made the decision to not continue her preschool for the rest of the school year, and, considering that she was planning to retire at the end of this year, it means that she is effectively retiring from being a childcare provider.

My sister Eva McKimm and I decided to start this GoFundMe because Laura was really relying on the income she was going to be making this year to launch her successfully into retirement, and now she has to cover additional medical costs associated with concussion recovery. Laura is self-employed and doesn’t have any form of extended health coverage. We wanted to give her the opportunity to heal without the anxiety and stress of an added financial challenge as she transitions into retirement.

Those of you that have had the opportunity of having your child in Laura’s care (or been a child in her care, if you can remember being that young!) know what an intuitive, gifted and empathetic teacher she is for kids as they start their education journey. She has been working in early child care for 60 years and working here in Nelson (and area) for the last 40 years. She had reached the point where she was getting the children of the children that she had worked with coming through her preschool! In the past few years she hasn’t been working full time because 79! but it is a testament to her commitment that when parents approached her, she found ways to continue to work her magic with kids.

We know finances are stretched in general, but we are hoping that if we can get this out to the many, many people whose lives Laura has been a part of, we can support and care for her the way she has supported and cared for so many of us and our children over the years. If 500 people give $40, we will have reached our goal, and she has certainly had more then 500 kids come through her school over the years!

Please spread the word!