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The account was established by FlyLady Premium employee Annie Wygant, of Minnesota, who has been corresponding with Westwood’s Linda Andresen online for work since September.
“Linda and I ‘clicked’ when she noticed in a Facebook picture that my son was wearing hearing aids,” Wygant told Daily Voice. “When I learned that her hearing aids were broken and that they couldn't afford new ones right now, I knew I had to help.”
Cancer, multiple sclerosis and thyroid surgery are only some health problems that Andresen continues to battle all while caring for her husband and three children.
"No matter who you are you are not immune to filling in hard times," Andresen told Daily Voice. "A year ago this would not have been an issue and wasn't when we paid for my son's hearing aids then, or the year before for my daughter's."
Andresen had tubes put in her ears when she was 5 years old due to a mild hearing loss.
Doctors said the painful tubes would cure her hearing loss but the tubes were removed and — since Andresen remained hard of hearing — replaced with hearing aids.
“The other kids stopped playing with me, stopped talking to me, and stopped being my friends,” Andresen said.
“My status as popular dropped to not so popular. I no longer thought my hearing aids were cool, I now wanted them gone, and that is just what I did.”
That changed when Andresen had her three children with her husband, Jon Andresen, and wanted to hear them make their first noises.
Now that she’s more than 90 percent hard of hearing and overcoming her fear of being seen with her hearing aids, Andresen needs a new pair.
"I would hope and pray that people look at others with compassion," she said. "Just because someone has a nice house or a nice car does not mean they don't need help certain times."
CLICK HERE to donate or HERE to read Andresen's blog posts on her journey.
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