Christina Update #1: Pain

Like me, Christina gets cold very easily. Her family home is in New Hampshire. She has been staying there with her parents since her neck surgery in January. Although technically it has still been summer, already she bundles up in the daytime and routinely sleeps with heating pads and hot water bottles.

Christina bought a ticket to Mexico today. She leaves in less than a month for San Pancho, a village in the state of Nayarit. You may remember me saying in the original post that I met her there. She has spent the past few winters in San Pancho and has some friends there who will help her out by providing occasional meals or doing errands that would be difficult for her.

Mostly, she wants to be warm and not cooped up in a small cold house with her parents. It also helps that she can get fresh fruits and vegetables in Mexico in the winter.

Buying this ticket involved a huge leap of faith. Once Christina arrives in Mexico, she will need money for food and rent. Although she lives very modestly and is quite thrifty, she has no means of earning money and her family is not positioned to meet her expenses. I have encouraged her to take this leap, as I know how much extra suffering the cold caused her this past winter. This suffering was physical as well as emotional and psychological. I wondered at times whether she could maintain her will to live until warmer weather arrived.

Thank you for donating to the PayPal account I set up for Christina. Our contributions — thus far totaling $500 — have helped her beyond measure. She has bought a space heater for her room in NH. With her parents’ help, she has also bought a comfortable chair and a bed. (The bed has been a godsend, as she was sleeping on a leaky air mattress.) She has also paid for some therapies not covered by insurance.

My intention is to continue to contribute to her survival, and I invite others to help as well. There is a button for PayPal contributions at the end of my “Help for Christina” entry in this section of the website. Alternatively, you can go directly to PayPal and choose kathryn@wellwisestrong.com. Venmo works for Kathryn-Thomas-92. Or you can use Zelle. Or send me a check. I’ll provide an address. Any amount is appreciated.