Ronald McDonald House Charities

I have one older brother who needed multiple surgeries while growing up thanks to a condition he was born with. Our family would take summer roadtrips out from Chicago to New York every few years, since that is where the specialists were for my brother to get the best care possible. When you're seven, you don't think this is odd but for my family it was our norm. Some of my earliest memories were staying at the Ronald McDonald House, being able to have Mom still cook dinner for us in the communal kitchen, as well as playing on the old-school Pac-Man arcade machine with my brother in the playroom the day before his scheduled surgery. It allowed us, during our couple week stay, to have a sense of normalcy amidst a time when my mom was extremely stressed out because her child had to have surgery - again.

The other beauty of the Ronald McDonald House was they were open for everyone. I remember making friends with a little Russian girl who was also there. We couldn't really understand each other but still played with one another in the playrooms up until she had to leave to stay in the actual hospital.

As a sibling of a child's family who were supported from the Ronald McDonald House multiple times throughout my childhood, I have nothing but absolute respect for what they provide in order for families to retain the simple core that keeps families going - a temporary home away from home allowing the sibling to come with when her older brother is recovering from his surgeries.