There was pain in the voice of Troy Mcphail of Des Allemands as he spoke – a father who wants to help his child, but isn’t sure where to turn.
Mcphail’s son, Beau, lives more than two hours away in the Jackson, Mississippi area along with his mother, Barbara, who was diagnosed with breast cancer a little over a year ago. Beau, 15, suffers from his own medical issues as well, and both need to make regular visits to the doctor for care; finding a way to get there has proven problematic.
“She had been relying on friends, even paying some people to bring her,” said Mcphail “She just bought a vehicle, had to save up, but it’s really not fit for anything. All it really can do is get her five or 10 miles up the road to the dollar store.”
The former couple went through divorce, but it pains Mcphail to see Barbara and their son in this situation.
“She’s got three acres of land over there, and she has to spend the little bit of money she has for someone to come help her and mow her lawn,” Mcphail said. “She was diagnosed right at Christmas (in 2020).
“I’ve been trying to find something for them … I’m on disability, and I can’t really help them (financially). You have to find something decent, and I can’t … I have to live. They have to live. Her income is fixing to get cut off, and it’s just going to be the check Beau gets. I’m just trying to do anything I can.
“I feel like I can’t help my own son.”
He started a GoFundMe in December (titled “Helping Beau and his Mom get to the doctor”) to raise money for something affordable to get the two from place to place reliably, but thus far it hasn’t proved fruitful.
“I’d do it on my own if I could … I don’t like asking people for anything,” Mcphail said. “This was kind of a last resort, because I didn’t know what else to do. I thought $4,000, $5,000, might be enough to find something at least decent. I kind of put that as a baseline.”
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