Request InformationEveryone likes happy endings, right? If we didn’t, Hollywood moviemakers wouldn’t work so hard to find new and creative ways to tell stories in which good wins over bad the guy gets the girl or the unlikely deserving person finally makes it big. You know, the stuff that movies are made of!
But what makes a person happy or feel happy is very subjective. One person’s happy is not another person’s happy. For one person, just waking up in the morning might be enough happy for them that day while another person wakes up in the morning and goes searching all day for that one thing that will make them happy. Lifelong behaviors, personal experiences, and personality traits play into how each of us views happy and what it means for each of us. So, figuring out what a happy ending is not as simple as it seems.
So much of what Helping Hearts Foundation does each day is look for ways to find happy endings for each person we serve. We first try to figure out what the happy ending looks like for each individual and for each specific situation. You may have never heard of an agency that provides in-home care or help with finding the right level of care talk about finding happy for each person, but that is what we strive to do. Here are a couple of recent examples of what Helping Hearts Foundation’s team members have worked on that has produced happy endings.
A young mother in her late 30s with a teenage daughter found themselves in California after the mom had suffered a stroke. Due to the mom’s illness and care needs, mom and daughter (who are very close to each other) were separated – the mom to a care facility and daughter to the care of a family member. After six months of turmoil, the family situation came to a boiling point. Helping Hearts was called in by a local hospital after the mom, who had been able to go stay with a family member, got left (dumped) at the emergency room because the family member couldn’t deal with the mom’s care needs anymore. Mom sat for 2 days in the emergency room until the hospital contacted us and asked if we could help. Now remember, the mom is in California (a strange, unfamiliar place), she hasn’t seen her daughter, has no money, no cell phone, and no personal belongings. Got the picture?
So Helping Hearts stepped in and began to look for the happy ending in the mess of this young mom’s life. And we found it! At least, the beginning of it. Helping Hearts helped her find a place to live with a bed, three meals a day, clothes – whatever it took to make her comfortable. We also tracked down her parents (who had moved to a new state at the same time our gal had had her stroke), so she could reconnect with them and figure out how they could help her and her daughter.
In addition, our team worked to ensure she had contact with her daughter; that the family member who was exhausted was relieved of her care, and other family members (her parents and her daughter’s father) were able to come alongside her and meet her needs. Mom is now with her parents on the east coast and the daughter is with her father until the end of the school year.
Hooray! A Happy Ending!
The family still has a long ways to go to reunite mom and daughter (and three other younger children with their father in another part of the country), but they’re on the journey toward a happy ending, one they designed. Helping Hearts was able to offer just enough support and help as requested to help them start the journey.
