YOU saved the day

So much has happened in the past few weeks.

Steve's colleagues at the St. Petersburg Times put on a phenomenal fundraiser, with fabulous local bands at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa. Just a week earlier, four wonderful women gave Steve and Marian a handicapped accessible van and an electric wheelchair they'd been planning to sell. The van and wheelchair had belonged to their late father and they felt the donation honored him. With the van and wheelchair, Steve was able to take Marian to the concert, which she loved. The concert angels deposited more than $5,000 in the Marian Coddington Trust Fund.

Steve started work again at the newspaper two days a week. Thanks to your wonderful generosity, he could pay a health care professional to stay with Marian. He is preparing to hire a physical therapist to start aggressive therapy with her. Things got a bit sidetracked when Steve and Marian's little boy got very sick. He's now a patient in All Children's Hospital, suffering from a kidney condition that will probably require surgery.
Thanks to YOU, Steve could take Grant to the hospital and stay with him. He again could afford to hire a health care professional to stay with Marian. Friends have come from Chicago to take over at Steve's house while Grant's in the hospital.
We don't realize how little it takes to turn people's lives upside down. Think of what would have happened to this family had they not had your thoughtful donations. How would Steve have cared for his little boy and his stricken wife? How would he be able to get her therapy, begin to structure a family life, take Marian and the children on outings, return to work even parttime?
The battle with Cigna goes on. Steve is still trying to get the company to pay for intensive inpatient therapy -- the care Marian truly needs to progress.
We, his friends, can't begin to thank you for responding to this family's needs. Steve had become mired in the seeming hopelessness of his family's circumstances until YOU reached out to him.
You prove each day that there is goodness and generosity in the world.
We'll keep you posted.