Liz & Rick — Oregon
“I guess you could say that for me, finding Fifth Season was something of a fluke. I was actually searching the Internet for information about Rick’s rare form of cancer when I found a link to Fifth Season on another cancer site. From the second I clicked the link and arrived at your home page, I knew that I was also more or less home. It was just a feeling. Besides, I don’t really believe in flukes. I believe that good things come to us at just the right time for the right reason. Our wonderful relationship with Fifth Season was simply meant to be.
“Like many people, we were a one-income family. So when Rick’s cancer was diagnosed at an already advanced stage, my first thought was, ‘Well, this is it. We have no financial options.’ After many long nights of pacing the floor and worrying about how we would be able to continue making ends meet, I found Fifth Season and realized that we had immediate access to funds from his life insurance policy. It was literally a case of something wonderful happening right in the middle of the worst situation of our lives.
“To be honest, my very first thought when I read the information about Fifth Season’s Life Insurance Line Of Credit was mild skepticism, which I think is pretty normal. It took a lot of faith and trust because we live in a time where there are many attempts to prey on people when they’re most desperate and vulnerable. But my heart told me that Fifth Season was a company and a concept we could believe in — and, thankfully, they were. And still are.
“Before we found Fifth Season, we sought help from every kind of government agency imaginable, but there was always a very unhappy trade-off involved. At the core of it was the message that we could apply for food stamps and other so-called financial support systems if we would simply sacrifice the dignity, pride, self-respect, and independence we’d spent a lifetime establishing and maintaining with determination and hard work. We were basically told that we would have to become indigent in order to survive. And if it hadn’t been for Fifth Season, that’s exactly where we’d be now — deprived of dignity and defeated.
“Unless you’ve actually been there, most people don’t really comprehend the cost of being blindsided by cancer. One day you’re working and planning for your retirement and the next day you’re struggling to keep a roof over your head. For many ordinary people who aren’t wealthy, the worst-case scenario happens overnight. As a result, the stress on the patient and the whole family is overwhelming. Instead of an environment of healing, you’re all living in an atmosphere of relentless emotional pain and fear. Fortunately, everyone at Fifth Season gave us new hope along with their financial help.
“When you’re suddenly deprived of the only working income you have, you soon realize that the big picture we call ‘normal family life’ is actually made up of countless little things that we tend to take for granted over the years — and like it or not, the reality is that all of those little things cost money. If it hadn’t been for Fifth Season, our family’s quality of life would have been destroyed, just like that. A lifetime of hard work and being responsible and making plans for the future, all wiped out by a cancer diagnosis. It breaks my heart to think how many people living with cancer are worrying about finances all night instead of living each day to the fullest. I wish I could tell all of them to call Fifth Season — now.
“For Father’s Day, we were able to fly my husband Rick’s Dad up to Oregon from San Diego as a surprise. It was a wonderful and happy occasion for all of us and it’s just one example of the things we’d never have been able to do without the financial assistance we’ve received from Fifth Season. Sometimes it’s family and friends and a feeling of overall well-being that helps a patient in ways that no medical treatment can. Our wonderful friends at Fifth Season have made it possible for us to focus on being alive — and making every moment count.
“We’re having a huge family camp-out in the Cascades this summer. More than a hundred special people and loved ones coming from far and near to join a ‘Celebration of Life with Family & Friends’ in Rick’s honor. We’re going to spend several days and nights enjoying the beauty of nature and focusing all of our energies on simply being joyful and grateful for all the good things in life. If we were struggling to make ends meet day in and day out, this would be the kind of wonderful new memory that we could never afford to make together. And I thank all of our friends and extended family at Fifth Season for helping us to make it happen. Which reminds me — you’re all invited!
“Soon after we received our funds from Fifth Season, my children were already saying, ‘Mom, the stress on your face is going away.’ That’s how much of a difference Fifth Season made in our lives from day one.
“I had become accustomed to having financial doors slammed in my face until the night I came upon your Fifth Season website. That’s when I understood that those closed doors were all behind me — and a wonderful new window of opportunity had suddenly opened. That’s the incredible part of this experience with cancer that I now call Our Journey. And I think of our friends at Fifth Season as our very caring traveling companions.
“The financial assistance from Fifth Season lets my husband Rick continue to work a shorter week — and at a reduced income — without worrying that the balance of our bills will still be met. It also allows me to accept the responsibility for making sure our house payment and other primary living expenses are covered without my being stressed out all the time. Before Fifth Season came into our lives, a number of government agencies had actually suggested that in order to qualify for support we should strongly consider becoming homeless. After a lifetime of responsible hard work, I found that insulting.
“To tell you the honest truth, it was your customer testimonials on your website that convinced me Fifth Season was the option I needed to explore. I could sense in the words of those other people that they had truly been in our shoes. I knew they had felt exactly what I was feeling. And I could also tell that they had found a financial solution that turned everything around as quickly as their lives had been turned upside down. And now I’m one of them — another Fifth Season customer testimonial. I can only hope that someone else in need of your help will ‘hear the truth’ in what I’m saying and call you immediately.
“The ironic thing is that we had made some large equipment purchases about the same time that Rick was diagnosed with cancer. We had a financial plan for the future and we believed everything would be paid off in a couple of years. We were looking forward to retirement and looking back on a job well done in our life together. We thought we had it all figured out, but we were denied that option. Fifth Season understood our situation firsthand, and gave us a new option.”
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