My name is Sharon Yemima. It is with great difficulty and shame that I must tell you my story — the story of a very ill mother of 7 children, who is now also a beggar.
Since being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, I’ve been kept prisoner in my own home, unable to move on my own. The disease moves rapidly, painfully, and there is no cure.
I am not able to leave my house. I am not able to work. My husband is barely working, because we need him home to take care of me. For weeks, I have been unable to bathe. We can’t properly feed and clothe our 7 children. I take expensive medical treatments to keep my condition from getting worse, and they have totally drained us.
On shabbos, our lack hits hard. My sweet children each get just a little bit of chicken to eat, and most of our seudah is bread. You cannot imagine my pain, seeing them deprived in this way.
Here I am — my body wracked by illness, helpless, unable to feed my own children. My heart aches to know that I cannot give them what they need.
Now we have to move — and we must find a place that is on the first floor that we can afford or I will truly be trapped by my illness, a prisoner in my own home.
It is with shame that we have been left with no choice but to beg for the help of the rest of klal yisroel. I ask you with all of my heart and pride on the line, please help us to meet our basic needs with some semblance of dignity.
The children shouldn’t have to suffer just because I am.
Thank you.
Sharon
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