Hello all! So a friend of mine posted this online earlier and I wanted to share it. It's a letter that Dean Young wrote to his then-21-year-old nephew about the life of the writer. For those of you drowning in Priority Mail envelopes and suffering to remember all the different passwords you set up for online apps, take a break before the big push, and remember why you're doing this:
Letter from Uncle Dean
Here's his wonderful voice in poetry (and Poetry):
Winged Purposes
And for anyone reading this who doesn't already know, Dean Young is in dire need of a heart transplant and a fund has been set up to help with his substantive medical costs. If you can spare $5 (that's like half a transcript, right?) or just want to read Tony Hoagland's appeal, go thisaway:
Transplant - Dean Young
Hope everyone's makin' it through! I have three papers to write in less than a week and about 10 poems to revise. But I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Cheers,
Amanda
(Vandy '12)
3 comments:
Thank you for this post. I am troubled to learn about Dean's medical situation. I used to work in health care benefits, and I wonder if Dean has ever tried applying for Social Security disability assistance to offset some of his medical costs? It would important that the fundraiser be placed in a trust.
It hurts to see one of our great poets in this condition.
Hi Julie, I'm not sure. I do know that he has insurance, but that it won't cover most of the post-op costs. Tony Hoagland updated his letter yesterday and discussed how much is needed:
"Whatever the scenario, the expenses, both direct and collateral, will be massive. A transplant itself will cost eight hundred thousand dollars. His insurance will pay most of direct costs, but the auxiliary out of pocket expenses-- after care, physical therapy, medications, complications- are expected to run over one 100 thousand to 250 thousand dollars during the coutrse of treatment.
Dean's friends have connected us with The National Foundation for Transplants (NFT) a non-profit transplanting fundraising organization. (The money collected will only go to pay medical expenses not covered by insurance; They meticulously monitor it; any money that might not get used by Dean's needs will go into their general fund for others.)"
http://yersweetchimneys.blogspot.com/2010/12/plea-poem.html
Thanks a lot for a bunch of good tips. I look forward to reading more on the topic in the future.
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