My daughter, Jessi Fox and Matthew Meier were married on March 31 in Salem. They had planned to be married in August, but due to Jessi’s serious health issues they decided to be married right away.

Jessi has a brain disease called Moyamoya. She will be having two surgeries in the near future and they just felt they needed to be together during this time. Moyamoya is a series of strokes that affect the brain. The only option for help is a surgery that removes veins from one part of the body and attaches them to the brain area to start sending blood to the brain. There have been very successful surgeries in this area, but the experts in this field are few and far between.

Currently Jessi has an appointment on April 18 with two specialists in Portland from the Emmanuel Hospital group to decide on the procedure and where she must go for the surgeries. At this point the two options are for her to have the surgeries in either California or Arizona. These will require two separate trips and healing time in between. She and Matt may have to travel to the chosen place for a second opinion by doctors there.

There have been and will continue to be tremendous expenses involved in getting Jessi better, so a fund has been set up for her: Jessi Fox-Meier Fund c/o The Bank of the Pacific, P.O. Drawer B, Ocean Park, WA 98631.

For notes of encouragement you can write to them at: Jessi and Matt Meier, 77855 Highway 202, Birkenfeld, OR, 97016. Their phone is 503-755-4114. Thank you.

Maryann Fox

Long Beach