by John Dowd
Robert Gillespie has been a staple in the Darby community since he moved there in 1969. He has lived there almost his entire life and has done a lot for the community as a whole. According to Sheena Gillespie, Robert’s wife, “he’s helped fix things that are broken for other people,” for years. Now, Robert himself is in need of fixing. At 59 years old, his heart is failing.
Robert worked in the mills, graduated high school in Darby and has been operating his own welding business. However, In September, Gillespie checked into the cardiac ICU at Sacred Heart Hospital, in Spokane, Washington.
The Gillespie family found out about Robert’s heart in 2011, and he has always had difficulty. However, in the last few years, things have gotten worse. He had a pacemaker put in this year, but after
the surgery, the doctors told the family it wouldn’t be enough. He would need a new heart. When he checked into Sacred Heart, Robert was put on the recipient list, which Sheena said is extremely long. The process to get on the list was also long and extensive, and anyone can always be knocked off for a number of reasons.
Robert is just focusing on staying healthy, and able to receive a heart if the opportunity comes around. Sheena said Robert is currently a status 3 recipient, but slowly falling to a status 2. The lower the status, the more severely the patient needs a heart. At status 2, he may need to be put on life support. At the moment, Robert must be constantly monitored, and the medications that are keeping him alive are very hard on the body. His liver will eventually fail.
He does walking laps around the hospital to stay strong to receive a heart, and is eating as healthy as he can and staying emotionally strong. According to him and Sheena, they consider receiving a heart “a huge blessing, and a gift. We really want to honor that and the person that’s giving that, because that is not a small thing.”
Robert has O positive blood, among other qualities, which makes finding a heart especially difficult. Hearts are matched to blood type, height and weight, and Robert finds himself in a hard place, but the family is keeping up hope. “You know, we don’t want to hope anyone else has to lose their life to get a new heart, but they aren’t just keeping them [hearts] lying around,” said Sheena. “All we can do is live off hope and a prayer.”
The Darby area is coming out to help the Gillespie family in a big way and is holding a community fundraiser to help offset travel and lodging expenses the family is incurring while Robert is going through this. Sheena travels back and forth from the hospital and home because they still have a teenager in school, and Robert, if he does receive a heart, will still need to stay at the hospital for at least two months more for observation and recovery. All of this is putting more strain on the family’s finances.
The fundraiser was the brainchild of Kris Timothy. She is a friend and also a board member at the Darby Community Clubhouse. “I knew that they were incurring a number of expenses,” said Timothy. “It’s a lot emotionally, let alone financially.”
The community is hoping for over 200 people to show up for the event. The fundraiser will be on Saturday, November 2 at 6 p.m. at the Darby Community Clubhouse. The door fee will be $10 per individual, and $25 for a family. It will include a dinner, a silent auction and more. There will be a bake sale with things donated from the community. The dinner will include a pulled pork sandwich, from pork that was also donated.
Auction items will include flower arrangements for a year, a cord of delivered firewood, pickleball baskets, gift certificates, locally handmade jewelry, a bed and breakfast stay and much more. They may also raffle off some bigger prizes. “We will have a great variety of items to auction off, something for everybody, we hope,” said Timothy.
When asked about all the support from his friends, community and family, all Robert could say was that it is all “pretty awesome and pretty humbling. Thank you. I just can’t say thank you enough.”
“We’re so grateful that we live in such a great community,” said Sheena. “We have a really great support system.”
Interested parties looking for more information on the fundraiser, and how to donate or get involved, can call Kris Timothy, at (907) 723- 0801. According to Timothy, “It’s just a really long road for this family and we want to help as best we can.”
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