On October 5, Elisa's little boy, Jeramiah, went to bed just not feeling good, nothing too unusual. On the morning of Sunday, Oct. 6, the unthinkable in every parents' mind happened - he didn't wake up. We don't know why yet, we just know he passed away in his sleep.
Elisa is a fellow local (central Ohio) caker friend. She's the mom of two sets of twins, a set of boys and a set of girls. Jeramiah was one of the boys. The pain she and her family must be feeling right now is unimaginable.
Yesterday (Saturday Oct. 5), Elisa delivered a wedding cake and a birthday cake, and went to bed tired but happy from another busy cake weekend. Today, everything has changed. She has had to suddenly, understandably, close up her shop. She has posted a message that she must cancel all future orders.
She has told me several times in the past, that I was the only local caker that was generous with my help and friendship as she was getting started - not seeing her as a competitor (in an industry that has room for all of us) but as a friend and fellow cake artist. I hope through the grief of this time, that we can come together as cake artists, the wedding industry, or just cake lovers, and change all that? Can we all come together and help her, even now that her business must be closed? My compassion for her goes beyond what I can do on my own, my business and my influence may be small, but with the help of social media, can we get the word spread far and wide that we as an industry can come together and show love to one of our own?
The last thing on her mind right now should be trying to come up with the money to refund the canceled cake orders... on top of the lost income... on top of her family grief. This wasn't a little extra fun stuff hobby for her. Elisa's husband is formerly in the military (2 tours) and she has been depending on the (very little, as we all know) profit she was making on her cakes to stretch everything to make ends meet.
Elisa doesn't know I am doing this, she hasn't been back on to respond to any messages today, but can we show her a real outpouring of love, in a tangible way that lets her know she is in all of our thoughts and prayers?
If you would like to visit her facebook page to leave some words of love and support, please - PLEASE - be kind, and don't say something that will hurt her further; even some well meaning words can have a terrible sound to a grieving parent. A simple "I'm so sorry for your loss" goes so much further than words like "Heaven just needed another angel"...as a friend of someone else who has lost a child, trust me on that.
www.facebook.com/paulinekitchen
If you can't donate, please just keep Elisa and her family in your
thoughts and prayers. She needs them.
If you can donate - any
amount would be helpful, and ***every single last penny*** will go
directly to Elisa.
Please note, you can choose to use any payment method you would like, but if you choose the "gift to a friend" option, your full donation will go to Elisa. Using the "goods and services" option will deduct a percentage that goes to Paypal. Use whichever option you feel comfortable with, but I just wanted to point that out.
My goal is to gather enough so that she doesn't have to think twice about how she is going to pay for the refunded cake deposits (as cakers we all know how ugly and short sighted some people can be when it comes to their cake orders, unfortunately, so let's all hope her customers are understanding), but on top of that, so that she has abundantly more for upcoming expenses. Not many people have life insurance for a child.
The email address I have set up for all funds is
Paypal donations can be made to this address. I will collect donations through next Sunday, October 13, and deliver the total amount to her next Monday. I know this is a short fundraiser, but I want to get this money into her hands as soon as possible, so that she can refund her customers and use any extra in the coming days ahead.
Thank for you reading this and for your thoughts and prayers for
her.
Let's show her some cake love!
Thank you.
Debby Gerth
Owner of Home Run Cakes LLC