Deacon Stephen Booth and his loving wife Anna are the kind of people you strive to be your entire life. They are beyond caring and would never hesitate to give the little they have away to someone in need without question. They are involved in many charities both through the church and others as well. Just one example is Chalice (http://www.chalice.ca/), this charity helps overseas children with medical attention, food and shelter needs. It also helps children who have lost their parents find new stable homes where they can be safe and healthy.
Stephen is on sabbatical from Holy Spirit Parish in Barrie. This isn`t because it is something he wants, in church and helping people is his life and part of his very soul. Stephen also was working and able to support his family until tragedy hit. He lost his job, his drivers licence, his vocation, his charity work and he lost his belief in himself.
The series of events that started Stephen’s troubling times was when he was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa which is a deteriorating retina disease. He currently has night blindness and no peripheral vision and his condition will eventually lead to blindness. Then Stephen even took a worse medical downfall called Cataplexy. This hits him often leaving him unable to move or talk. He has no warning that an episode is coming, one minute he is talking to you and then he`s gone. These episodes last from a few seconds to an hour that traps him inside his mind with no control over his body. Although not life threatening, he has also lost all hearing in his right ear. Recently the final blow came when he went to his doctor and was diagnosed with NASH disease. This causes him to have no energy, weakness and fatigue. This disease also took the life of his father. All he wants is his wife and daughter to be able to have their home and for him to find a way to somehow survive. His hope is always there....
His loving wife Anna who suffers from Fibromyalgia is a constant source of love and support to her husband. She works overnight earning minimum wage, struggling with the pain and fatigue that constantly batters her weary body. Yet she works, she has to. Anna forces herself because she doesn`t want her family to lose their home. They have hit the point that no matter what they do they will never be able to catch up to the bills which soon will take their families home from them. They have no resources to which to draw from, there home is mortgaged to the limit. They are standing on the ledge and being pushed off by their crippling medical conditions. They are losing everything. Even with all this on their already heavy shoulders they continue to amaze me with their amazing generosity and huge hearts. I lost my son in February. Anna drove the whole five hour drive herself through a snowstorm as Stephen can`t drive. She put those fears aside because they had to be here for us to share their loving presence. Even with everything they are going through they took the little grocery, bill and insurance money they had and fought with me for hours to take it to help bury my 17 year old son. They reach out to people everywhere and touch so many lives maybe it’s time we all got together and touched theirs.
I`m pleading with everyone out there to please help this amazing couple. Let’s find a way to help them catch up on their mortgage payments, to be able to travel for Stephen’s doctors’ appointments and to allow Stephen to visit some of his family while he is still physically able.....
Let’s learn from their amazing spirit and show them this world does care.