You never know what burdens someone else is carrying.
J Graham is one of the kindest people I’ve gotten to know on DK. She always has a warm greeting and a word of encouragement for everyone, and has cheered me up I don’t know how many times. And to my complete shock, I discovered earlier this week that she was doing it despite wrestling with cancer, being unable to work full-time, and facing down the expiration barrel of the Covid rent relief program.
As many of you know, J Graham has been courageously battling breast cancer since 2019. Unfortunately, three weeks ago her oncologist determined that tumors have also started forming in her bones, requiring radiation for her knee (she just completed a course of five treatments) and ongoing medication.
On top of that, her Covid rent relief runs out at the end of December, at the very time when, due to health issues, it’s going to be impossible for her to hold a full-time job. That’s a double whammy no one should have to face, and a horrible way to end the year.
So let’s help out!!! With J Graham’s permission, I have created a fundraiser for her at MightyCause, with the goal of raising enough to cover her needs for the next three months. It’s ambitious, but with your help, I bet we can do it! (And if you’re in a position to do a donation match challenge, please message me!)
Donate at J Graham’s MightyCause page HERE!
or donate via paypal to jgraham4healthcare@gmail.com
(on paypal, use the “friends and family” option to avoid fees!)
So exactly how amazing is J Graham? Follow me over the fold to find out!
One of the things that floors me the most is the way she looks at everything as an opportunity for growth. Seriously! In a group email chain, talking about her latest diagnosis and current situation, she wrote this:
“[I] just want to thank you for saying this: "There's no shame in admitting to fear." I'm coming to see that trying to control anything about this is useless, especially my feelings. I just need to go with the flow, day by day, and let it all out, whatever it is.
In fact, just allowing myself to have any feeling I have, including fear, seems to be relieving my overall state of fear. And I'm reading a couple of books that have been confirming my gut feelings about all this. Basically, one book in particular is helping me to allow myself to STOP. I have wanted to just stop for years: Stop trying all the time to be good, better, more accomplished, as a way of proving that I have a right to exist.
What if I can't work for a while? What if I never work again? What if I just let go of all my plans to be "useful" and just be useful to myself and love myself right now (and forever), because I really, really need to do that? What if I stop automatically letting other people's beliefs and attitudes control me, and develop much deeper trust in myself?
[...] Already I see ways I've approached life that I can do differently - like not automatically doing what I think other people want me to, like doing what really moves me to do, and really, really taking better care of myself. If that gets me through this time and as a result develops a much stronger emotional/spiritual/physical foundation for my life going forward, then that will be a wonderful thing.”
THAT is the courage and wisdom that is J Graham. Please help me help her out, and pitch in to give her the breathing room she needs to face and conquer this new challenge!
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Donate at J Graham’s MightyCause page HERE!
or donate via paypal to jgraham4healthcare@gmail.com
(use the “friends and family” option to avoid fees!)
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Thank you, and if you are in a position to do a donation match, please let me know!