Update from the Roberts Family 9-30-22
Friends,
Below you will find a note written specifically to the NSCI community from Keely and Jason Roberts. There are no words sufficient to express our delight in Cooper’s progress, and yet we also know how much support the entire family will continue to need as they navigate into the future. Our Hands of Chesed team will continue to provide meals for the family for the next few months at least. If you are interested in helping provide a meal, please fill out this form here. You can also donate funds in support of this effort to nsci.org/give and direct them to Hands of Chesed in the dropdown menu under “Type.”
For recent news coverage about Cooper and the Roberts Family, click here.
L’Shalom,
Rabbi Wendi Geffen
To Our North Shore Congregation Israel Family,
We write this letter to you from a place of such deep appreciation for each of you and for this magnificent faith community. Although we feel such deep, soul-crushing sadness for the tremendous pain and damage that has been senselessly inflicted upon Cooper, and in different ways, Luke, too, we also feel such gratitude and overwhelming joy as we send this message to you. We feel blessed to be able to share with you that after over 2 ½ months of his beating all odds; fighting for his life, having to be told he was paralyzed from the waist down, living in in-patient care at multiple facilities—separating the family, suffering through unimaginable emotional trauma and various surgeries, tirelessly working to begin the lifelong process of often painful physical rehabilitation… Cooper is now home.
For so long now we have wanted to reach out to thank you for all that you have done for us. Please know we have had the best of intentions for reaching out sooner. On most days, it is still taking most all of our time and energy to maneuver this new situation we find ourselves in. Even though we have six kiddos ranging from 28 to 8, veteran parents by all standards☺, we now find ourselves talking about feeling like new parents again; often feeling inadequate and hoping we are making all the right decisions. Most days feeling like there just isn’t enough daylight to get everything done that needs to be done… like writing that Thank You Letter to the congregation! Truth be told, maybe the other obstacle has been a bit of writer’s block. How do you start a thank you letter like this? What words do you use to thank a community of people who have become more than your fellow congregants, but who have now become a part of your family—even if some of them have never met you in person before?
We feel so poorly equipped to convey to you how critical to our own personal survival the love and support you extended us (consistently and without fail) from the moment that this Evil attacked us has been. Please know that the encouragement, well-wishes, and love you have continued to send us as parents from Day 1 help keep our heads above water when we feel like we are drowning in pain and grief. The reality of how Cooper’s life and life as our family has known it has been forever changed. That can be overwhelming at times. Your support has been a life raft keeping us afloat.
As parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, family members, etc. you have wrapped us in prayer, love, and care through so many strategic vehicles of support and this allowed us to focus our time and energy as much as possible on just caring for Cooper and his recovery. You cared for us and for our children as though we were your own family… and we have felt that from the very beginning of this nightmare. It is absolutely imperative to us that you know that your supportive actions have made a tremendous difference; we would not have been able to do this without you. You have made a difference in all of our lives forever. How could we ever sufficiently thank you all for this? For now, we are left only to say, emphatically, is that we love you and thank you.
L’Shana Tovah,
Jason & Keely Roberts
