While most high school seniors were enjoying their last weeks in school before graduation, Holly Beasley was struggling to breathe in Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. What had happened only two times in her life as a person with cystic fibrosis was now happening two to three times a year: hospitalizations for recurrent lung infections.
It was not a good time for more bills for the family, with Holly starting college, major home and vehicle repairs, and her father just getting back to work after two years.“My dad has always had to work overtime, and now he works out of town, so, I don’t get to see him much,” she explained. “I felt bad that it was because of me that they had to spend all that money on my hospitalization.” “We felt defeated as parents,” Holly’s mother Vickie said. “Holly worked so hard, she did her part. We felt like we had failed her. Even with the disease, she got up at 5:30 a.m. to do her treatments, she made the grades, and we didn’t have the money. We were frantic. We didn’t have a clue what we were going to do.”
Then the family received good news from the Mother’s Day Offering. “Paying off that bill was huge,” said Vickie. “When we got the call, I felt so thankful. I could feel the financial burden rolling off.” Today, Holly is in college and focused on completing her studies and getting better. “Sometimes when you have a chronic illness, you can feel alone,” she said. “This uplifted me and made me feel people are there for me.” That’s the real power of the Mother’s Day Offering, Vickie believes. “Sometimes when you are in the depths of despair, you think nobody cares–even God. But He always shows up on time. Here we were wiped out, and He shows up through this offering and says, you don’t have to do anything, I’ll handle it. Things like this remind us what we are here to do. We are here to help each other, love each other and support each other.”
