Thursday, October 21, 2004
Yesterday a parent requested a conference with all of his teachers-- me being one of them. We were surprised because the student of this parent is an excellent kid...his only real problem being that he keeps passing gas in my class. But most of my eighth grade boys do that.

When we went into the conference room, the boy's father immediately began to sob. We were, of course, totally shocked and let him take a minute to collect himself. He was a big guy, looked like a lumberjack, and I think we were all pretty uncomfortable.

He then told us that he had just been diagnosed with Lupus and that the doctor had given him less than a year to live. His son, Zach, had seemed a little off lately. We found out that because his father had been too ill to work he had been fired. He is raising Zach all by himself because Zach's mom left them when he was only a baby.

Because his father can't work anymore, they have lost their home. As of today, they live in their truck. Yesterday Zach's dad told us that he had run out of food and was trying to get into a free shelter to feed his son.

I have never done this before, but my heart is just breaking over this situation. I am going to help out anyway I can, at least to get Zach lunch and whatnot, but they need more. I thought I might ask for your help.

If you are able to help Zach and his dad at all with a donation, I would be happy to send it along to them. If you can donate even five dollars, please go to Paypal.com and request to send money to grrlsprout@hotmail.com. It is a very user friendly site and it shouldn't be hard to sign up for an account to do this. I know the family would really appreciate it. Thank you. ¶ 8:50 AM