Lani Anglin and I write on the acclaimed Bloodhound Blog. We've never met but we share a whole bunch of things in common. We've developed a "friendship" commenting on each other's weblogs these past few months.
Lani lost her brother, yesterday, in a tragic car accident, as he drove to her home. She reports:
To me, the important thing to know is that the crazy kid in the funny video is my newly 24 year old little brother Aaron who died yesterday on impact. He was driving to my house (to make another silly video) and was driving with his wife (Aleisha Anglin, 25) and their two babies (Eleanor who turns 1 THIS week and McKenzie who is only 6 weeks old).
Aleisha & Eleanor should be released today and McKenzie is in the ICU in improving condition. We have tons of family surrounding us and St. Thomas More parish is providing food this week for our entire family!
Aaron was awesome and his marketing work can be found at http://benaaronanglin.carbonmade.com. He was confirmed in the Catholic faith last week, laughed his butt off at ICanHasCheezburger.com with me this week.
We were born 18 months apart (Irish twins) and grew up as best friends with so many lame stories.
Greg Swann points out the practical needs of the family:
Aaron Anglin is survived by a wife and two very young daughters. The way I’m reading things, he died without life insurance, which puts those three ladies on a very hard road.
If you can spare something for them, put it in the form of negotiable funds — cash, cashier’s check or money order — and overnight it to:
Aleisha Anglin
c/o Lani Anglin
2719 Costa Azul Cove
Leander, TX
78641
April is working on setting up a donation account with Bank of America, and I’ll amend this post when that account becomes available.
But: I will promise you that there are people who will want to be paid now, and this young family will have immediate and ongoing needs. There was a time in your life when fate could have hit you this hard. Now is your chance to redeem that good fortune.
Please join me by remembering Aaron and his family in your prayers. Any help you might give the family will be appreciated.
Fran White asks:
Can You Stop A Moment From Your Busy Schedule... To Help Someone In Need? We Should.
Paula Henry tells us that she's:
Brian - Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It is good that you just happened to blog and she happened to blog back and now it a time of need, that chance blogbackering has put you in position to help a friend in need.
I will send a check.
I would like to encourage as many active rain participants as possible to take the lime green ribbon (Lani's favorite color) and include it on your active rain and regular blogs and websites and link to Greg's post on the Bloodhound blog.
If the graphic is too big for your site, I have the original on my site at: http://www.derekburress.com and I think I just got an email from Jay Thompson saying that he had a smaller one on his site so feel free to take the ribbon and add a link back to Greg's donation page.
Indeed you got an email from me Derek.
A slightly smaller version of the graphic is here. Anyone is welcome to it.
If anyone needs a different size, let me know and I'll be happy to get you one.
Lani and I are great "cyber pals". She's an amazing person, and my heart goes out to her and especially Aaron's wife and children.
I'm in the process of setting up a PayPal donation link (similar to the one I set up for Karen George -- and thanks to those that doated to that great cause!)
Brian
When you have the donation information updated, I have friends at Bank of America that will help promote it to others.
I'm fraught with concern because as I look at my wife and 2 small children, I often wonder how much they mean to me, and how devastating that would be to have something so tragic and unexpected.
Thoughts and prayers to them, and our gratitude to you for bringing it to our attention.
Lani was on Luxury Home Digest last night telling of her grandmother who sold her home and earthly possessions--and took off for an African orphanage to help those in need. Lani is indeed a special lady and blogger.
Brian, thank you for sharing. May the family's pain be eased by our prayers and donations. I will share where I can--and have added your button to my blog.
There is now a donation button up on my blog where if you are able, you can donate by credit card or Paypal, eCheck, etc.
I hope we'll see this donation button propogating across the real estate net...
Jay: I emailed everyone on Bloodhound already and most on Rain City Guide. No one from Rain City has responded. Not sure who else has sent out emails seeking help. I added an update in the comments on Bloodhound about the paypal button and came here to do the same but you had beaten me to it. :-)
Derek
Greg Swann at the Bloodhound Blog now has the codes to various size ribbons as well as Jay's Paypal button up on his site. We would like to ask that as many of you as possible to please add a ribbon and button to your site and blog and link to the donation page on Greg's site at the Bloodhound.
Also if you can send out emails to family and friends informing them of the cause, please do so.
Brian,
Thanks for throwing this together. I have added the graphic and links to Bloodhound Blog to my other blog sites to hopefully let more people know how they can help.
Brian - I saw your post here and decided not to do my own on AR. Thank you for caring.
As you know I spent a Sunday with Benn & Lani. They are genuine people who care very much about family and their work. In just one day I feel we became lifelong friends. When someone you care for hurts, you hurt.
As with many on this blog I would encourage you to take a moment and picture yourself driving around with your family in the car and having no life insurance. I did it for nearly 11 years before I wised up. Actually, I always knew it was a good idea but could never justify the expense. I've been there and through the grace of God passed through that time unscathed.
If you can only give $5, give $5. You will make a difference to a widowed mother of two who has a long road of recovery, both physical and mental, in front of her.
Brian,
This is very Sad!! I am sorry to hear this, I think you are very nice to write this..
Tom Weiss
I will pray for this family and I have forwarded your blog to a few people so hopefully we can help out this family.
Hi Brian,
This is a tragedy and just so heartbreaking. I could not imagine the agony she must be feeling. They are in our thoughts and prayers.