When Mikaela Case woke up Monday morning, she had a voicemail message from Gainesville Police.
GPD found her mom in her car, idling on the road, the 22-year-old UF graduate recalls. She had been sent to UF Health Shands Hospital after suffering a stroke.
Now, she’s raising money to help her mom.
“I was more shocked than anything,” said Case, who graduated from UF last semester. “I just wanted to know more than anything that my mother was okay.”
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After coming up to Gainesville to spend Easter Sunday with her, Case’s mom, Elizabeth White Case, got up late at night to move her car.
Mikaela woke up to find her mother missing.
After listening to the voicemail, she rushed over to the hospital, where she found her mother in an intensive care unit on the eighth floor of the hospital.
At age 65, her mother had suffered from a stroke. Case said the right side of her mother’s body is paralyzed and she suffers from speech impediments.
Her grandma, Joyce Bramlett, said she was taken aback when she found out.
“It’s a real shock to me. She had none of the prerequisites for having a stroke,” Bramlett said, adding that her daughter was athletic.
Case started a GoFundMe page on Monday to help pay for the medical expenses. She said she’s hoping to raise $110,000, which will cover her mother’s stay at Shands Hospital and the physical therapy she’ll need.
Her mother, who was in-between jobs, doesn’t have health insurance, she said.
“We’re not rich, and she’s pretty much all alone down here,” she said. “It’s kind of up to me to take care of her.”
As of press time, the page has raised more than $4,000. Case said she’s happy about the help, but she still needs to cover her mother’s monthly bills.
Her mom covered her college expenses. Now, she said it’s up to her to help her mom out with her medical bills.
“She’s raised me all her life alone with no help from anybody,” she said. “I’m trying to help her the best way I know how.”
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Bramlett, who lives in Georgia, made the drive down to Gainesville when she heard what happened to her daughter.
When she saw her daughter, she said she noticed her speech had improved. She said her daughter is hardworking, and her rate of recovery proves it.
“She is really working at it, and I’m really proud of her,” she said.
@MelissaGomez004
mgomez@alligator.org
