Received this request from Rebecca Andrejczyk if you can help let me know:
The email below is from my sister Melissa to a bunch of us who have been supporting a family through their son's bone marrow transplant and difficult (and still not here) recovery. Melissa met them while on the isolation ward at Children's Hospital with her son Orilus nearly 4 years ago. While Orilus has made a full recovery, Eddie's health continues to deteriorate. He's still super sick and attends multiple appointments per week. They just had to leave their public housing in Salem due to renovations as you'll read below and are residing in a Ronald McDonald house. I'm wondering if you would pass this along to the church body and see if anyone has housing on the north shore that they could use, even in the short term while they wait for the government housing to come through. I'm just trying to think of everyone we know who might be able to help.
A week ago Friday, Kori (Eddie's mom) received notice that the public housing in which they've lived since Eddie's transplant had decided to make some major renovations...beginning Monday (so they had almost no notice!). When Kori told Jimmy Fund the news (she was concerned, of course, about construction debris/dust/mold and Eddie's immune system) they told her that she could not stay there for Eddie's sake. Ugh.
Salem Housing Authority must find a new place for them to stay until the work is finished, but they think it will be some weeks before they can find her a place. Meanwhile, the work has begun and Eddie and his family have had to leave. They're now residing at Ronald McDonald house in Boston in very less than ideal circumstances, and when I talked with Kori today, she and both of her boys were crying, they are so sad to feel so unmoored.
I'm writing because I guess I feel overwhelmed; sometimes this family's needs are so great I don't know how best to help. I know we can pray for them; honestly, I think they are reaching new levels of discouragement, anxiety, and depression, and they need our prayers and encouragement. But also, what to do? Kori needs to be in/near Salem, where Eddie is supposed to be receiving summer tutoring and where some of his appointments are. She's going to push Housing later this week to get her a place, but I'm so sad to think of them in Boston, alone, living out of suitcases, in a room with no TV, sharing a kitchen with other medically-traumatized families (and their germs), accumulating additional expenses...it's a lot. If ANY of you have any ideas about how to help the family through these next weeks, please let me know.
