The Durham Children’s Aid Foundation came to Companies Who Care with a heartbreaking story of a local family that has experienced some incredible hardship.

David Westbrook (19) and his twin sisters Darcy and Karen (14) lost their father 5 years ago to cancer. Mom eventually met a new partner who was also recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. As the kids struggled to accept the likelihood of losing yet another father-figure, their Mom was also diagnosed with cancer and passed away quickly.

Without any immediate family or support system, the 19 year old son was now in charge of supporting his sisters financially and emotionally as his navigates grieving, guardianship, running the household.

Companies Who Care made arrangements to cover a month of living expenses (rent, groceries, household bills, etc.) for this family as well as David’s small student loan and an urn for their mother’s ashes . The goal was to take care of their immediate financial needs so that they could focus on handling their mother’s final arrangements and grieving her loss. In addition, others made substantial personal donations to cover additional months of living expenses and provide other comfort items to help this young family along. Outside of the Companies Who Care donation, we were able to raise and additional $10,000 for this family.