Support Sarah, Kevin and Arlie Mae Garrison

I am sending out this plea for funds for my dear friends Sarah, Kevin and Arlie Mae Garrison, who never ask for help but need the support of our community right now.

For those of us that know and love Sarah and Kevin, we know them to be optimistic, hard-working, loving and generous. They are giving teachers to their students and amazing parents to their daughter, Arlie Mae.

But right now, Sarah is facing her greatest challenge as the result of a rare and life-threatening complication from cancer treatments.

Almost three weeks ago, Sarah was rushed to the ER because she could not breathe and her heartbeat was extremely irregular. Sarah’s lungs had filled with fluid and her organs were shutting down. What followed was a 17-day ordeal where Sarah was put on a ventilator and kept in a medically induced coma in ICU.

Kevin has been by her side every step of the way and Sarah’s parents and family have stepped in to help take care of Arlie Mae. Sarah and Kevin don’t advertise their adversity. Many of you that know them well might not know all that has been going on with their family these last 6 months. They have faced each obstacle with courage, determination, and without complaint.

As their friend, I want to make sure that I do everything I can to aid Sarah’s recovery and help their family get through this challenging time. And right now, the very best support that we can give is financial.

We are all praying that Sarah comes through this medical nightmare and makes a full recovery, but any recovery is going to take months and the family needs help to get there. From medical bills and rehabilitation treatments, to care for Arlie Mae, they need help. Last June they purchased a new home which required months of mold remediation for it to be safe for Sarah to live in. The work on that residence is almost complete so they can soon move into that new home with a safe and healthy environment. But in the meantime, they have been paying for their rental as well as their mortgage payments.

If you feel like helping to support them in this time of healing and transition, it would be greatly appreciated.

Please keep reading below for more information about this great family.

Kevin is the art and physical education teacher at Brookhaven Middle School and Sarah was also an elementary school teacher before the birth of their daughter, Arlie Mae, fourteen years ago. Even though Sarah moved out of the classroom to care for Arlie, she continued to support local youth through her tutoring. Sarah Payette grew up in Sebastopol and is still (30 years later) the most decorated Sebastopol Sea Serpent swimmer ever to come out of the program and is in the Analy High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Kevin is an avid and successful competitive cyclist. Both Sarah and Kevin know how to work hard and push themselves. Now we need to help them so that they can focus their energies on healing and their family.

You may have seen Kevin or Sarah walking Arlie Mae in downtown Sebastopol in her specially equipped tricycle. Arlie Mae was born with significant health complications. Arlie requires 24/7 assistance for every aspect of her daily life needs, and Sarah has been her primary caregiver since birth. The sheer love and will and determination of Sarah and Kevin and their hourly devotion to her care paid off. Today Arlie lights up a room with her smile and, with assistance, can walk short distances, ride her tricycle, communicates her pleasure (or displeasure) at a suggestion, and laughs along with others. Sarah and Kevin are amazing parents and they would tell you that Arlie is a blessing in their lives. She is a beautiful spirit and she is a joy and delight. But she also needs assistance with every aspect of daily life from getting up in the morning, dressing, feeding, bathing, toileting to getting around and interacting with the world. Arlie has amazing teachers at Twin Hills School and receives lots of support but Sarah and Kevin provide her daily at-home care.

Sarah and Kevin have been incredible advocates for Arlie getting her the special education services she needs and deserves. Following their example, I am advocating for Sarah and Kevin to get the financial help they will need to hire some assistance with care for Arlie as Sarah recovers and Kevin returns to work.

Sarah was diagnosed with cancer in September 2022 but her doctors were hopeful that her type of cancer would respond well to an intensive treatment regime that involved daily radiation for 6 weeks with concurrent chemotherapy. The radiation and chemotherapy treatments were only available in San Francisco. So every weekday for over 6 weeks, Sarah made the journey of over an hour each way to San Francisco while Kevin took a leave of absence from teaching to care for Arlie. Because of Sarah’s compromised immune system, they sequestered themselves, only relying on Sarah’s parents for additional support through the treatment period. As they usually do, they did what was necessary without complaint. The chemotherapy caused Sarah to be hospitalized each time for several days with serious complications.

While the treatment regime left Sarah cancer-free by March 2023 (yay!), she experienced a rare and life-threatening complication as a result of the chemotherapy. Sarah’s lungs had filled with fluid and her organs were shutting down. For 17 days Sarah was in the intensive care unit, on a ventilator and kept in a medically induced coma.

Through it all, her family had little to do but pray and be by her bedside. Every time the doctors tried to reduce the sedation and see if they could wean Sarah from the ventilator, her heart or blood pressure would react badly. Ultimately Sarah was transferred to UCSF to receive the best treatment she could get for her condition.

I’m happy to report that just this past weekend, the amazing doctors at UCSF and Sarah’s internal tenacity healed Sarah sufficiently for her to be able to come off of the ventilator. And while that is incredible progress, it is only the start of a very long recovery. Right now, Sarah is so weak that she cannot lift her arms or sit up on her own. We know that she will bring the same level of courage and hard work to her own recovery that she has shown throughout life. But she will not be able to step back into the role of Arlie’s primary caregiver for some time.

They have exhausted their resources with all the time out of work.

Sarah and Kevin would not have made it this far without the incredible support of their family. Especially Sarah’s parents, Gail and Bob Hight and Dan Payette, and Gail’s extended family, who have stepped in to provide the round-the-clock care that Arlie needs, as well as drive Sarah to and from treatment in San Francisco. They have also received tremendous support from their landlord/friend, Toby, who has done everything from laundry, cleaning, shopping, etc. The whole team has worked tirelessly and they, too, need some respite.

Anything you can give will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading this far and I will keep you updated on Sarah’s progress.

With gratitude,

Tate Birnie (on behalf of Sarah, Kevin, Arlie Mae and all of their family)