Running a reverse : Benefit to offer help for community caregiver
Posted on Sunday, August 31, 2008
ANTHONY REYES Northwest Arkansas Times A benefit will be held Sept. 13 for Razorback fan Mary Ebert, right, who has been diagnosed with nonalcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, by several of her friends, including Ann Coursey, left.
Northwest Arkansas Times “ We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. ” — Winston Churchill It’s a flip of the script, a turn of the table. Call it whatever you want — Mary Ebert’s not used to it. For most of her 60 years, Ebert has been the one to lend the hand. It’s been said it’s better to give than to receive. For her, it’s also easier. So even though the diehard Arkansas Razorback fan has been waiting for the renewed football rivalry with the Texas Longhorns in Austin, Texas, Sept. 13 still might seem like Backwards Day to her. From noon to 7 p. m. that day at her favorite place to watch games on TV, On the Mark Sports Bar & Grill in Fayetteville, a benefit will be held in her name to help ease the financial tensions that come with working only a day and a half since June after being diagnosed with a nonalcoholic case of cirrhosis of the liver in January. “ She’s such a huge fan, ” says Mark Wright, a longtime friend of Ebert’s and the owner of On the Mark. “ There’s going to be a lot of people here. What better way to have something that will help her mixed in with something that she loves so much ?” Beyond the car At the event, Razorback merchandise and other prizes will be raffled and auctioned off, including a print of Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium signed by former University of Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles and a football autographed by Razorbacks football coach Bobby Petrino. All are donations from members of the community who know Ebert’s track record of charity.
“ It’s very hard for me because I am not use to people giving to me. I’m used to giving to them, ” says Ebert, who is beginning to tear up while sitting at a table at the Arsaga’s Espresso Cafe on the corner of Township Street and Gregg Avenue. “ Everybody’s been real supportive, wanting to do whatever they can do. ”
The people sitting in the same coffee shop may affectionately know her as the “ crazy Razorback lady” due to the tons of University of Arkansas memorabilia she has festooned on the exterior and stuffed in the inside of her 2004 black Dodge Neon. Her friends know her as a person who would pay for daycare so a single mom could attend college and who would bring bowls of warm soup to sick Razorback athletes of every sport. They also knew months ago that it was Ebert in need of help.
“ That’s the reason the people are reaching because she has helped so many people in her life, ” says Wright, who originally had the idea to hold the event around the Texas game instead of earlier this summer. “ She took care of those players like they were her own kids. ” Ann Coursey, who owns and styles hair at Salon 125 on Township Street remembers one day talking with Sherri Planchon about their dear friend. “ We were just talking about it in the salon that we need to something for Mary. Once it gets to where she’s not able to work near as much, it’s going to get bad quick, ” says Coursey. Following a stint in the U. S. Navy from ’ 67 to ’ 70, Ebert has full health insurance and care with the local Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Fayetteville. Still, everyday expenses and bills have become growing burdens ever since she has been unable to work as an assistant manager at the White Oak Station at Gregg Avenue and Sunbridge Drive.
Taking notice Ebert first noticed symptoms in November but her self-admitted stubbornness kept her away from the VA until January when her conditions worsened Her legs and stomach, in particular, began to swell causing her to add 50 extra pounds. “ When I couldn’t breathe and I’d go to work and I’d come home more swollen than what I was … everything was hurting, ” Ebert says.
She decided to seek medical help.
Ebert always has a water bottle within a close reach to help curtail a nagging cough caused by the malady.
“ Water’s about the only thing I drink, ” she says. “ I cheat and have a Diet Coke every once in a while. ”
In a Catch-22 situation, though, she’s not supposed to drink too much of the natural cough suppresser because an influx of water allows the fluids in her body to build up, particularly in her pleura, a sack located between her lungs, which nearly cuts off her ability to breathe. Through a procedure called thoracentesis, the fluid is removed about once a week.
“ I’m a unique case, ” Ebert says. “ They’ve not seen somebody fill the way back up the way that I fill up [with fluid ] without it being cancer-related. And knock on wood, so far there’s no cancer. ”
As of Wednesday, Ebert’s doctor was looking for a date to schedule a liver transplant, a procedure more than likely to be performed at the VA medical center in Jackson, Miss. The hope is that the operation, along with her low-fat, lowsodium diet, will get Ebert back to calling the Hogs at the stadium instead of front of the TV before the end of the season.
“ When I first told her the date of the benefit she said, ‘ Well I’m going to be in Austin, ” Coursey recalls.
“ She said, ‘ No you’re not, ’” responds Ebert as her laughter finally makes its way through the coughs.
She will, though, be among friends.
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