What $25 can do

Last week, I shared with you about a fellow freelance writer, Lori Hall Steele, who has been diagnosed with ALS.  Her insurance company was denying her medical claims and, thus, any nest egg she had built for she and her son (she’s a single mom) was gone.  Last week, a large group of writers banded together to try and save Lori’s house from foreclosure.  The idea?  That we each pitch in $25 and blog about it in the hopes that others might do the same. 

$25.  It’s my water bill.  Half a gas tank (well, depending on the price of gas).  A dinner out with BF.  An ink cartridge costs me more.  So it might have seemed liked $25 couldn’t save a house.  But, boy, can it.  The news today was that $17,000 was raised for Lori last week– $17,00 that can help with her house payments and medical payments in the hopes that Lori can take her mind off those things and put her mind on her health and her son.  The things that we really want to care about in our lives, and the things that we most need to care about when life is flickering with doubt.   

I shared with you Lori’s beautiful essay about life and death that was written well before she was ever sick and was published finally, ironically, just this summer in the Washington Post.  Now aware of Lori’s situation, the Washington Post plans on doing a follow-up story.  If it goes up on-line, I’ll share it with you when it is published.    

A fellow freelancer and friend of Lori’s shared the following news in the update about Lori today: 
“Finally, I just wanted to share one other thing with you all. Earlier this week, Lori regained a *small* amount of range of motion in her arms (Imagine if we were going to arm wrestle, how we would clasp our hands. If you pick up Lori’s hand, like you’re going to arm wrestle with her, she is able to push her own arm down). A very small glimmer of hope that’s huge when you consider that one of her caregivers told me (when she heard the news) “That doesn’t happen with ALS.” So maybe, just maybe, there’s one more miracle left in store for Lori.”