SEARSPORT, Maine — Myrtilla Laieski has lost her hands and is soon to lose both her feet, but there’s nothing wrong with her heart.
Except that it has been a little overwhelmed lately by the kindness of people, neighbors and strangers alike, who have reached out to her as she deals with the four amputations that are a result of a case of pneumonia she contracted in May.
“It’s been an amazing response. It really amazes you. Just when you think there’s no good left in the world, all the letters and notes came in,” she said. “It made me realize how not alone I am.”
On Christmas Eve, Myrtilla was home at her Searsport trailer, getting ready for a visit from her son, U.S. Army Sgt. Russell Brown, and his wife, Chrysta, who live at Fort Benning, Ga. Brown is home on leave after his second tour in Iraq, she said, and she was looking forward to seeing him for the holiday. Her friend Bonnie Berry was helping her to bake a ham for a special meal.
Searsport woman struggles to cope with loss of hands and feet Myrtilla Laieski knows that life can change forever in a matter of seconds. That lesson was driven home to her painfully in May, when one moment she was planting rhododendrons and rosebushes and the next she was “wobbling and wheezing.” She staggered into her home, stricken by a dangerous type of pneumonia, though she did not know it yet.
It was a moment of normal Christmas-related bustle and preparation, a rare occurrence in seven months that have been anything but normal for Myrtilla and her family.
After being suddenly struck down by the rare and dangerous pneumonia in May, she woke up from a coma after two and a half weeks in the hospital with her hands and feet black from gangrene. She has had to become accustomed to using metal clamps in place of her hands and manage a walker and a wheelchair to get around her single-wide trailer. Her final amputation of her remaining foot, which was scheduled for January, likely will happen even sooner than she had anticipated.
Sometimes, Myrtilla didn’t know why she had survived at all, she said in an interview with the BDN in November.
But her friend Bonnie Berry organized a fundraising supper for her at the Searsport Lions Club about two weeks ago with the help of the Searsport Full Gospel Church, and the response from that — and from the article in the BDN — was huge, the women said Friday. Berry had said she intended to raise some funds to help Myrtilla and her husband, Frank Laieski, who also is disabled, make their trailer more handicapped-accessible. She also one day hopes to help Myrtilla obtain some better prosthetic devices that would look and act more like hands.
The fundraising is off to a great start, they said Friday, adding that they are very grateful to those who have donated to the effort.
“The place was packed for the supper,” Myrtilla said.
Another church, the United Methodist Church of Searsport, was holding a monthly turkey supper the same day, and Myrtilla’s story was “weighing on” several members of the congregation, according to Pastor Steve MacLeod.
“They voted to give all the profits to Myrtilla,” he said.
The church was able to raise over $600 that night, and several diners said that they were pleased to help her.
“It’s part of what Searsport seems to be about,” MacLeod said. “I’ve been here five and a half years now, and when there’s a need, it seems that the community rallies around.”
The rallying doesn’t always come in monetary form, he said.
“The power of prayer always helps,” MacLeod said. “It doesn’t take a lot to help somebody in need. It’s all we can do.”
Myrtilla said she has received donations and letters from well wishers in Maine and New Jersey, and even from one Mainer now working in Germany who keeps up with the news from home on the Internet.
One woman gave her $1,000, Myrtilla said.
“It was just unreal, for someone who doesn’t even know me,” she said.
Members of the Searsport Full Gospel Church said that they would get some carpenters in their congregation to do some work on the trailer, Myrtilla said.
And that’s not all.
“I’ve heard from other people who have had similar challenges, who just shared experiences and things about having prosthetics,” she said.
Myrtilla said that she preferred not to disclose the full amount that has been raised, but said that if the money isn’t needed to help make the trailer more handicap-accessible, it will be used toward those better prosthetics — which have a price tag of $25,000.
“This will make a great down payment toward that,” she said.
And in the spirit of the Christmas season, Myrtilla would like to share something with all the people who sent her money, letters and prayers over the last few weeks.
“I want to enclose a gigantic thank you to everyone, and say Merry Christmas to everyone. It just brightened my whole outlook on things,” she said. “You can just feel the love in the letters that people sent. It’s totally amazing. It was totally heartwarming to know that people care.”
For more information about the fundraising efforts, call Bonnie Berry at 322-7974.