Foundation helps make Thanksgiving to remember for local 97-year-old
Los Angeles-based Dream Foundation helped the family of Caden Harshman, 6, left, and his brother, Jacob, 3, of Pearland, Texas, visit their great-grandmother, Mary Shaffer, 97, in November.
Caden Harshman, 6, visits with great-grandmother Mary Shaffer, 97, at Golden Living – South Hills in North Strabane Township.
As her 97-year-old mother’s health problems mounted, Linda Shaffer put her thoughts into an internet search.
“My mom and I had begun talking about end-of-life situations, and she said, ‘I hope I live long enough to see my great-grandbabies,'” Shaffer said.
Her mother, Mary Shaffer, had seen her granddaughter’s son, Caleb, a few years ago, and her grandson Cayce’s first-born, 6-year-old Caden, when he was a newborn, but had never met her grandson’s second child, Jacob, 3.
Linda Shaffer, 65, wanted to make sure her mother saw her grandson’s two boys as she coped with respiratory health problems.
With money tight, Shaffer resolved to find outside help in getting four plane tickets for Cayce’s family to travel from their home in Pearland, Texas, for her mother, who stays at Golden Living – South Hills, in North Strabane Township.
Figuring it would take too long to use a crowdsourcing website, Shaffer tried typing “Make a Wish for Adults” into Google and came across the Dream Foundation, whose website says it provides “psychosocial and emotional support tailored to thousands of terminally-ill adults and their families. Our work plays a critical role in the special end-of-life care that focuses on improving quality of life for patients and their families.”
Lesser-known than its counterpart that helps children with terminal illnesses, the Los Angeles-based nonprofit has granted “dreams” to almost 25,000 ailing adults since its founding in the 1990s, according to its website. Program recipients lack the means to fulfill their end-of-life wishes and have life expectancies of less than a year.
A social worker from Mary’s hospice provider helped with the clinical paperwork while Linda Shaffer wrote a letter to the group explaining why she wanted the group to help the Harshman family visit the area.
Three weeks later, the family got word they’d been approved. Shaffer said the group normally pays for flights and accommodations for two, but had to leave the costs of the stay and rental car up to the Harshmans if it covered tickets for the four of them.
Shaffer said she agreed with her niece and nephew they’d forego Christmas presents to cover expenses, and they made a four-day visit to town the week before Thanksgiving.
“I have never seen (Mary) so happy in my life,” Linda Shaffer said. “It was so nice to see her smile because she’s had a lot of pain issues.”
Shaffer said she’d wanted to help the two boys see snow for the first time, going as far as to call an area ski resort that said it wasn’t making snow yet.
When the family was eating Thanksgiving dinner in a solarium at the nursing home, it started snowing.
“I couldn’t have written it better – just the way it all worked,” Shaffer said.