Carlyle’s two-armed hug

Most of you don’t know Carlyle, but he is one of Serenity’s closest friends. I was lucky to get to meet Carlyle and his family at Serenity’s house in 2019, when Serenity was celebrating their engineer’s PE license. I’m very appreciative of Carlyle’s supportive friendship of Serenity while they went through some challenging transitions this past year. Carlyle’s generous friendship has really helped Serenity.

There is a go-fund-me effort to help Carlyle afford the copayment for an artificial arm. If you haven’t already seen this on Serenity’s Facebook page, I reposting here in case you are interested in supporting this effort.

https://gofund.me/30a021ea

If you’re having trouble with that link, just search gofundme.com under “Carlyle’s two-armed hug”.

If you’d like to donate anonymously, there’s a little box you can check during the check-out process to keep your name and donation amount from being posted.

Here’s the write-up about Carlyle that I’ve copied from the gofundme page.

“Carlyle is an autistic disabled vet and was paralyzed after leaving the military.  At the age of 24, he had completed 3 yrs in the Navy and was working in Washington. He rode his motorcycle home one night & was hit by a car driven by an uninsured driver that ran a stop sign. His life changed forever. This accident left him now unemployed, homeless and with a paralyzed arm. He was a lefty no more. He fought every day and told himself if things didn’t get better he could kill himself tomorrow. Thankfully, that “tomorrow” never came. Since that accident, he’s graduated with a Bachelors and a Masters Degree. He’s been officially diagnosed with Autism after a lifetime of never knowing why he was different. He’s married & has a teen daughter. He gives back to his community through Autism and Disability advocacy, assistance, lending an understanding ear, coffee with scared families & helping teach first responders what to look for and do if someone is autistic and in crisis. He still struggles with depression and CPTSD as well as constant neck and back pain. All that to say, we are looking for assistance to get him a Myopro prosthetic to give him function in his paralyzed arm. The VA will not cover the entire cost. He is known in our community for his “famous” hugs. Would you help the man who loves to give hugs, give 2 armed hugs for the first time in over 20 years?   Note: Yes, we have insurance but our out of pocket is aprox $12,000. The Myopro is $80K.”

Thanks everyone!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com