Love, Floyd county style

A local nineteen year old man is prepping for a double lung and liver transplant to prevent him from dying of cystic fibrosis. Duke University Medical Center will perform the surgery and rehabilitation but the cost is estimated at $1,000,000 and his family has no insurance (think "pre-existing condition"). The Children's Organ Transplant Association required $30,000 deposit just place him on the wait list, a huge amount of money in this relatively poor county (per capita income in Floyd is 64% of the state average).

As soon as this situation became public knowledge, collection jars appeared in virtually every business that Mr. Fuzzy patronizes. Fund raising dances, performances and auctions were held. His friends and total strangers formed "Kai's Krew" to systematize the fund raising. Guess what? In just three months, Floyd county residents and businesses had chipped in $30,000. He and his mother are now in Durham while he takes tests and physical rehab to prepare him for the ordeal of major surgery. His girlfriend reports that his physical therapy is four uninterrupted hours, five days a week; the idea is to make him fit enough to withstand this radical procedure well. Best wishes to Sekai and his family - and God bless this wonderful, generous community who do their best to take care of their own.

On a smaller scale, generousity was at work during the Sunday breakfast at the Cafe today. Rebecca the fabulous chef, brought in the most beautiful Valentine's Day cookies your correspondent has witnessed in his three score and more years. Then she gave them to 'all usual crew' and the waitresses and cooks. Mr. Fuzzy was humbled by her gesture. Below is the cookie he chose and the assortment (somewhat picked over at this point) to give you, the reader, some idea of the breadth of technique and beauty involved.

Mr. Fuzzy wishes he had found Floyd county twenty years sooner. What wonderful people dwell within.