From Cardiac Arrest to Cinderella Castle: My Second Chance Dream

My wish is to take my husband Jared to Walt Disney World and make an incredible memory together after almost losing my life. This past August, at only 47 years old, I went into torsades de pointes and cardiac arrest. I died twice, received CPR, was shocked back to life, spent days in the cardiac unit and ultimately had a defibrillator implanted in my chest. My entire outlook on life changed in a matter of seconds. Jared and I have been together for 10 years and married for four, and he became my caregiver when I came home. He helped me shower, get dressed, get out of bed and off chairs and couches when I couldn’t do those things myself. He took care of the house and laundry and stood beside me through the fear and recovery, despite having health problems of his own. We are both on disability and live on limited fixed incomes, so there simply isn’t money left to make this dream happen. Right now, even our washer and dryer are breaking down, and replacing them is more than we can comfortably afford. I don’t need brand-new appliances. A dependable “new to us” washer and dryer would be an enormous blessing to our family. But my heart’s wish is to somehow take Jared to Disney World. Disney has always been my favorite place in the world, and after everything that happened, I want to stand there with the man who took care of me when I couldn’t take care of myself, watch the fireworks, laugh, take pictures and make memories together that have nothing to do with hospitals, heart problems or being afraid of what tomorrow might bring. I recently started a GoFundMe, but Jared is an extremely proud man and doesn’t even know I’m doing all of this. I haven’t shared the fundraiser on our personal social media because I know how uncomfortable he would be asking our friends and family for help. Instead, I decided to take some crazy chances and reach out to organizations like yours. Before my cardiac arrest, I always thought we would get to Disney “someday.” Dying twice at 47 taught me that someday isn’t promised. I was incredibly fortunate to get a second chance at life, and my wish is simply to spend some of that second chance making beautiful memories with the person who stood beside me through the worst days of my life. If you could help with our immediate need for a washer and dryer, our Disney dream, or even help share our story, it would mean more to us than I could ever put into words.

GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/67942b08c