I could give hundreds of reasons, I guess, but none better than this.
I vote for Democrats in memory of jimreyn. I didn't know Jimmy until a few weeks ago (1/26/12) when he posted a diary asking for help:
I've been a member of this Kos family since 2004. I'm 63, my wife is 50. We are both getting minimal SSDI and right now she is desperately ill.
I'm not much of a writer, so please bear with me.
My wife has CML. (Chronic Mylogenous Leukemia) Right now she weighs 89 pounds. She is being treated at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville for her leukemia but on Monday she was diagnosed with double pneumonia.
December was a rough month for us. Power bills, and fuel bills depleted our very limited amount of money. We had no Christmas except for a tree and I bought my 4 year old beloved grandson some Dollar Store Hot Wheels. As you can see there's no splurging.
My wife's medicine has a $1.10 copay for each script. On Monday, the pharmacist we've dealt with for 40 years let us get it with 80 cents worth of dimes I had saved.
We're 15 miles from a city where we can get help so every trip is gas I can't afford.
The pharmacist told me that I desperately needed to get my wife to a pulmonary specialist. The problem is that I've got 4 cents to do us until Feb. 3rd's SSDi.
I feel like I'm begging to ask my longtime friends on Kos for help. Plus, I have no idea about how I could get help from someone to me.
It seems that praying on my knees has been less than helpful and I guess what I'm doing is begging, but I ain't too proud to do that to save my wife's life.
I'm not sure how long I will be on here today, it depends on how bad my wife gets as the day progresses.
One more favor to ask, please pray for my wife if you can, it's the only hope I've got left.
Kossacks helped Jimmy and his wife, of course. We convinced him to call an ambulance and take his wife back to the hospital. By the next morning
Zen Trainer arrived at their house with food and funds to tide them over until Jim could access the money donated via PayPal and mail.
It's what we do.
The visual image of a man my age taking eight dimes he'd saved into a pharmacy - three dimes short of a copay - and throwing himself on the mercy of the pharmacist is burned into my brain. It won't leave me alone. There is a cold, hard anger in my heart that there is no effective safety net for good men like Jimmy. Men who love their wives and families. Men who consider themselves lucky to be able to give a beloved grandson Dollar Store Hot Wheels for Christmas.
Wives with end-stage cancer who develop pneumonia yet aren't admitted to the hospital, just sent home with a prescription for antibiotics.
Families facing eight days until the next SSDI payment with four cents in their pockets.
Americans so cold and sick and hungry and frightened and desperate that they've given up on prayer and turn to us, saying
I feel like I'm begging to ask my longtime friends on Kos for help.... It seems that praying on my knees has been less than helpful and I guess what I'm doing is begging, but I ain't too proud to do that to save my wife's life.
I wish I had saved the kosmails I received from Jimmy after his diary. Beautiful, gracious, humble thank-you notes for things most of us take for granted: Food. Heat. Medicine. Fuel.
Friendship.
I hoped things were looking up for Jim and his wife, and I looked forward to talking with him from time to time, as friends do. I hoped our efforts to make this a better country would, eventually, make diaries like his rare.
And then iriti called. "Have you seen the rec list?" she asked. Her own diary for KosAbility was on the rec list so I thought she was talking about it. I clicked over to the Diaries page.
My heart broke.
James Edward “Jim” Reynolds of Lynnville passed away Friday, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. He was an electrician, a former employee of WKSR radio and 63 years old.
RIP, Jimmy Darlin. I will never forget you, and I will never stop trying to make the world your grandson grows up in a less scary place.
See you on the other side. ♥
UPDATE
Not convinced we have work to do?
Read Has a Bag of Groceries Ever Made You Cry?
Read I love you mom.
Read This Is War.