Some have asked why start a widow’s charity fund?  The church is there to help, bishops are there to help, families, government, etc. Why is this needed?  So I feel the need to share with you the reason this is important.

               When I first started in the widows group many years ago there was a sweet lady in the group named Chris. Shortly after her husband passed she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Her insurance had lapsed as it was covered through her husband’s work. It was still within the cobra time frame, so she paid her cobra insurance and began receiving the chemo treatments she needed.  After a few treatments, her cobra was rejected. No more treatments and it was at a critical time in her illness. She needed the treatments right then.  She continued to battle with the insurance company even though most of the time she was too exhausted and sick to even get out of bed.  Finally, after a couple of months the paperwork was fixed and she resumed the chemo.  But it was too late. The medication was no longer strong enough to hold the cancer at bay. She died a short time later. 

               The treatments weren’t that expensive at the time. The government didn’t help, her bishop didn’t or couldn’t, family did what they could but it wasn’t enough. If a fund was in place maybe she could have been saved. So I decided then that I don’t ever want to wonder if I’d done enough. I immediately began formulating a plan for a widow’s charity to help those in our group who are in need. Not just for medical needs but any financial burden that is weighing their heart or body down to the point that they have lost hope. I’ve been that down, and you can’t feel the Lord’s love, or your own self-worth when things are that bad. It truly is an Eternal matter as well as an Earthly one.

               I wasn’t able to get the charity running at that point. I had some walls thrown at me that I didn’t know how to conquer. Then in early 2018 Russell J. Butler mentioned how he wanted to start a charity for the group, and Heather Okiishi said the same thing, at about the same time. It lit a fire in me. I felt that now I had more experience, and maybe could tackle the project.  So I did. With the help of many amazing people including a sympathetic attorney, and an amazing accountant, Russ, Heather, Stan Lockhart, and now Jared Belcher, we have been able to form this organization to help the widows/widowers that we’ve grown to love.

               We are just starting, so we are still small. We can’t fix everyone’s problems, nor should we. This should be for emergencies since it is for now, being funded by “the widow’s mite”, and those mites are sacred money. Our hope is that we can save someone’s house long enough that they can sell it and have the equity money to start fresh, or help with medical treatment, or an emergency car repair so that a job will be saved. We don’t know where this will take us as we start and move forward. But we’re excited to begin and to help our fellow widowed friends.  Thank you to all who have helped to this point, and to any who can and do contribute in any way as we head into the future.