Support the Robertsons As Both Parents Fight Cancer

Hello Friends,

Simply put, Julia has breast cancer. Anyone sane reading this is thinking: ‘You cannot be serious? Julia and Damon are both now fighting cancer? God, hasn’t this family suffered enough already?’ Well, we are all thinking the same thing. This is one of those situations where, like Job, we continue to praise Him even though things do not make sense to us.

What is Happening

For those of you who do not know, Damon has been fighting brain cancer (Anaplastic Astrocytoma, 1 in 250,000 odds) since August 2019. Around six months ago, Søren, Locke, and Leviathan were all diagnosed with moderate to severe Celiac Disease (1 in 100 odds), and in early June, Julia was informed that she has ‘aggressive’ breast cancer (1 in 8). Julia did a little casual math and calculated the statistical probability of such events occurring in the same family at the same time around 1 in 200 MILLION. We believe in a God that’s bigger than those odds.

The Ask(s)

Finances: More often than not, God chooses to work through people; this is where you come in. Julia sucks at asking for help, so I’m doing it for her. Damon, a veteran and retired fireman, has been unable to work since his diagnosis and has undergone a craniotomy during which a fraction of his brain, larger than some can believe, was removed in order to remove a portion of the tumor. In Julia's fight, her treatment and recovery is expected to take between 6 and 12 months. While Julia chafes at the idea of taking any time off of work, she, whether optimistically or unrealistically, aims to return to work around the holidays. Those of us who know her well will acknowledge her tendency to push herself to extremes and I, for one, would rather see her take considerably more time off than she is inclined to, to ensure she doesn’t run herself down before she’s actually recovered. Damon is still receiving half of his pension, despite being approved for 100% more than a year ago (bureaucracy is wild). The children’s Celiac Disease diagnosis creates complexity (read: expensive) when shopping and cooking. On average, gluten free foods are 183% more expensive than their non GF counterparts—add that to the copious amounts of fresh fruit, veg and healthy meats that are a part of a anti-cancer/Mediterranean diet and the Robertsons’ grocery bill would make anyone on a budget shudder. Julia, who normally does most of her shopping at the Grocery Outlet, will need to utilize services like Instacart heavily while she is in treatment, which are not cheap. The next six months of their lives are going to be expensive, with minimal income coming in.

Help: Julia had been waiting for the kids to get out of school to start working through a long list of “deferred maintenance” on their home this summer. If you know her, you know she’s extremely frugal and not one to outsource many (if any) home maintenance projects. Once upon a pre-craniotomy-time, Damon would have either helped or kept the kids busy whilst Julia performed handy-woman magic. Things like washing exterior windows and eves, replacing moldy kitchen sink caulking, changing air filters, draining and flushing the hot water heater, touching up paint, patching holes in the fence, amending/pruning/weeding in the garden, cleaning out closets…. all of which is in addition to general house work. Some of these things must wait, but many of them have already been waiting for a very long time. If you know how to do “things” (or if you know a good handyman), please reach to me (Bryan Hornberger) and offer to come by with a tube of caulk and a razor knife.

Childcare: Julia and Damon have an amazing au pair, Jarryd, who lives with them who can help to manage the children for 40 hours per week (YAY!). That being said, there are a lot more than 40 hours in a week and Damon’s cognitive disabilities preclude him from being a safe primary caregiver, so additional care will be required, whether delegated to paid or volunteer help. If you know the Robertson kids, please offer to come by on one of Jarryd’s days off and play with them or take them out for the afternoon: the park, the public pool, a hike… We will put together a schedule through Lotsa Helping Hands for volunteer days around Julia’s chemo days.

Food: DoorDash, GrubHub, and other meal delivery services are just too risky with the kids’ extreme dietary sensitivity (tiny gluten contaminations like toaster crumbs will lead to vomiting and high fevers within hours). If you are interested in providing a meal, we ask that you coordinate with me (Bryan Hornberger) or sign up on Helping Hands to come over and cook a meal in their house with their cooking supplies.

Closing Thoughts

The above does not include the emotional and spiritual support this family needs throughout this whole process. You can be continually praying. If you have been through this, having people to talk to who understand and empathize is a huge blessing. Julia could not possibly feel more overwhelmed, so please pray for her to have peace as yet more of her life breaks off from any semblance of control. You can sign up for updates, volunteer and reach out via LotsaHelpingHands here: https://my.lotsahelpinghands.com/request/molecule-roulette/select-email. GoFundMe takes a percentage off every donation unless you use the free Electronic Transfer function. If you would prefer to avoid this, you are welcome to mail a check, PayPal, Venmo, or Apple Pay to Julia directly.

Thank you:

To all of you who have been loving the Robertsons over the past 5 years. Thank you so much.

- Bryan Hornberger