Posted by panchmaster from pool0724.cvx25-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.218.214) on Tuesday, October 15, 2002 at 7:11PM :
She had her surgery last week...but it was close. Her health had really detriorated and doctors weren't hopeful. Finally the hospital at the University of Chicago...the place with too many Blacks around it...agreed to perform the surgery for $100,000. But first they wanted an assurance that $30,000 more would be available to pay for the follow through and other costs for at least nine months.
Nrasai got the president of the Taylor Foundation to kick in five grand herself...then got Mrs. John Madden...he's the ex-coach of the Oakland Raiders to kick in another five grand. Narsai knows a very interesting fellow who has a small winery that puts out very expensive wines...this guy has raised millions for children's health causes and he too kicked in five grand for Lina.
This guy has a small vineyard and he holds a sort of celebrity grape picking...all done by well to do friends who volunteer the day. He said if Narsai and the lady from the Foundation would join in the event, he would make a pitch to the assembled guest workers.
Come the day they put Narsai on the machine that moves the grapes so he could teach the people which grapes you want and what to do about it. It's such a small vineyard they finished in four hours then gathered on the lawn for lunch...at which time the owner and host made an impassioned speech aboput working with children...after which the lady from the Taylor Foundation spoke...and she showed a poster of photos of Lina to the crowd...followed by Narsai who told of their work with our people in Iraq...that part the United States and the Kurds allows them to work with...tough luck for the rest.
They put a huge walnut bowl out and in a couple of hours there was seven thousand in it when two well heeled types each wrote checks for the difference and there in that afternoon they raised fifteen thousand...which when added to the other $15,000 allows them to provide for Lina's post op treatments for the year after her operation.
Too soon to tell...but she came as close to dying as anyone in her shoes ever should. The fact that her brother is a perfect match, something you only have a one in four chance of, even with siblings, makes her recovery something we can hope for.
We discussed doing this as a regular thing...not going out hustling individuals each year...but some sort of an institutional approach...something well thought out with a chance of making it past the particular personalities of those who happen to be around and interested at the time.
We should have moved sooner...we should have been better organized. The hell with the massacres of years past and for god sakes FORGET SIMELE but keep the lesson of it alive...that we are responsible for much more of our fate than we have been willing shoulder to date.
This was enough of an intrusion on Lina and her family...I hope they keep us informed.
-- panchmaster
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