A family of two parents and four children - Brookhaven/OLA neighbors - woke up one March morning as any other day. The children went to school. The mother went to work cleaning hotel rooms. The father went to his job.
While financially struggling, they were able day by day to get by, until after that day in March.
A mentally unstable individual stabbed the father in the back and severed his spine. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital where he stayed 2 weeks after surgery. He is immobile and in grave medical condition. The mother is unable to work while she cares for him and the children are struggling to deal with the trauma. Due to early and ill-prepared release from the hospital because of a lack of medical insurance, the father's condition dictated an emergency return to the hospital where he continues receiving care and faces new complications.
While a team of legal, medical and social service organizations are battling to help the family overcome its multifaceted crisis, OLA's St. Vincent de Paul met with the family immediately upon receiving a helpline request for assistance with meeting April's rent.
At that first meeting we learned of additional needs, including medical supplies, and we immediately engaged with a medical/legal expert who deals with undocumented workers to direct the mother and lawyers to continued emergency medical care, rather than the perilous situation he had been sent home to face. We supported payment of the rent as requested, will pay more to help with utilities, have brought and will bring more food for the family, and continue to be alert to the family needs to provide additional support as we can.
Thanks to OLA parishioners' generosity, St. Vincent de Paul is able to provide meaningful help to these neighbors in need!
If you would like to donate to the good works our SVdP Council please go to olachurch.org/giving to make a one-time or recurring gift.
If you would like to volunteer and help serve our neighbors, email Steve Conway at steveconway63@gmail.com.