Mom on disability after bout with COVID seeks Christmas help from Goodfellows
Life was fine for Cessna until early 2022. She had been a restaurant manager for almost 15 years and was making a good living to support her two children.
Then, like many, she was struck with COVID-19. Her initial exposure was in January of 2022, but that was only the beginning of their challenges.
“I was very sick and sent to the ICU, where I almost lost my life,” Cessna recalled.
She was released in February of 2022 to go home, just to turn around and need an ambulance to bring her back to the ER because of nerve damage and pain caused by COVID.
“From that day forward I have been going through so much, from being diagnosed with several different diseases, to going 40-50 times to the hospital,” she said.
She has been deemed permanently disabled since April 2022, and continues to be on oxygen therapy.
“Emotionally this has taken a toll out of me and my children,” she said. “Now I have to depend on people just to get things done. My children need so many things that I am unable to fully provide due to having a limited income (Social Security Disability).
“This Goodfellow fund would mean a great deal to me and my children. It would give my children something to look forward to.”
And that is exactly what they are doing again in 2023. The Goodfellow Fund has been helping children from needy families in Tarrant County find joy in Christmas for more than 100 years.
The Star-Telegram charity has a goal of helping 13,000 children in Tarrant County have a happier Christmas this season by providing a $50 tax-free gift certificate for each child for trendy new clothing from Old Navy Stores.
About the Goodfellow Fund
The story on the Goodfellow website describes its beginning as an offshoot of the first newspaper charity drive in the United States, started by the Chicago Tribune on Dec. 10, 1909. A Chicago city attorney wrote a letter challenging his friends to donate the money they would have spent on holiday partying to charity.
A couple years later, the Advertising Club of Fort Worth staged the first local Goodfellow campaign. On the day after Thanksgiving in 1912, Publisher Amon G. Carter brought the tradition to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
To find out more, or to learn more about helping, visit goodfellowfundfw.com. The post office box for donations and correspondence is P.O. Box 149, Fort Worth, TX. 76101.