I started collecting in 1964, while a dependant living in Germany. At that time there wasn't much to do in Germany if your father was military, so I chose to occupy my time by collecting these little tiny pieces of paper I saw being thrown away. When I mentioned my newly discovered hobby in a letter to my grandparents back in "the states," I found out one of my grand-daddy's lifelong friends was the Postmaster of the little town in north Alabama that we used to live in. All of a sudden I had an endless supply of US stamps, from plateblocks galore, to singles dating all the way back to the 1847 issues! Seems that Mr. Johnson from the post office never had any children to pass his collection down to, and he kind of adopted me.

I never forgot Mr. Johnson's philanthropy and have always tried my best to help others whenever and wherever I could. About  10 - 11 years ago I opened a website, www.stamp-site.com, to help any collector that I could, new and old. The website was covered in Michael Mills' Glassine Surfer in the April 2000 issue of the American Philatelist. I gave away tens of thousands of stamps, mostly to young adults, to help them get started in collecting. Whenever I ran low I would buy large lots from eBay. Unfortunately I had to close the website because I could no longer afford to pay for the site and the Domain name. Someone else now has the name and is using it as a "for profit" linking site.

From 1994 to 2000 I also coached Girl's Fast Pitch Softball. If you have not watched this sport you owe it to yourself to watch a game on ESPN, a local college, or even at a little league field. Some of the better pitchers throw at 65+ MPH, and that is underhand! Taking into account that a softball is pitched from 40 ft, and a baseball is pitched from 60 ft., a softball traveling at 65 MPH  is equivalent to a baseball traveling at 105 MPH in the amount of reaction time a person has.

Now we come to the reason I am auctioning off my prized collections. In January 2000, I was working with my daughter, who was 16 at the time, and three other young ladies who had the potential of getting college scholarships pitching softball.

One of the other coaches, Jill,  was about 15 - 20 feet in front of me, showing the girls how to hold the ball to pitch a "riser ball." There was a miscommunication between Jill and I over what was going to happen. Jill thought that I was going to catch a pitched ball; I did not know that she was going to release the ball. I was struck in the left cheekbone by a 60 - 65 MPH pitch from about 15 - 20 feet away.

The injury was pretty bad; the rim of the eye was fractured in six places, the floor of the eye was "blown out (orbital blowout fracture)," the cheekbone was fractured, and the temple had a 1/2" long fracture. Surgery was scheduled the next week to "REPAIR" the damage. I have repair in quotes and CAPS because the surgery was the start of a nightmare that is still going on, over eight years later, and has now bankrupt us.

The surgeon attached a metal plate to the rim of the eye, using four short screws (3/16") and two longer screws (3/8".) However, the surgeon put one of the longer screws in the wrong place; in the middle of the plate instead of one of the ends. This screw, it was later determined, pierced and entrapped the main facial nerve. The pain from this was excruciating, to put it mildly, but the surgeon would not believe me when I told him how much pain I was in. This went on for eleven weeks, until another doctor finally found the problem and removed the plate. Unfortunately I could not sue Dr. Lee for malpractice because Dr. Page, the surgeon that corrected his mistake, would not sign an affidavit stating that Dr. Lee did not follow the ordinary standard of care, which is required in Georgia.

The intense, sharp pain in the cheek and numbness in my upper lip was relieved immediately, however, there is a constant, intense burning in the left side of my face, like a blowtorch, that is controlled only by heavy narcotics and other medication (Percocet, Ultram, Neurontin, Topamax). Also, I now have what is known as Tic Douloureux, or Trigeminal Neuralgia, which is a sudden "lightning bolt" like jab, in the left cheek and under the left eye that total incapacitates me. These jabs come with no warning, and with such intensity that the sharp pain has rendered me unconscience, resulting in broken ribs on several occasions, and a broken nose once, when I fell. It is getting where I am having these attacks 3 - 4 times a week. I cannot even hold my 16 month old grand-daughter for fear that I might fall out while holding her!

It is impossible for me to find employment at a conventional job, so I am self-employed in the computer field. I can't drive because of the problem with loosing consciousness, and I have lost customers for the same reason. We are on the verge of bankruptcy because of doctor Lee's negligence. I have had four surgeries now, trying to get the pain, the burning, and the trigeminal neuralgia under control and reduce the amount of narcotics and the high dollar medications I have to take. The cost for the medical bills for the monthly office visits, the prescriptions, and the liver panel that I must have quarterly because of some of the medication I take is over $2,000 a month, after insurance pays, and it's bankrupting us.

I have been auctioning my stamps to help pay not only the medical bills, but now to pay our mortgage. However, I can't get them on eBay fast enough to help. If anyone can tell me what to do to help PLEASE  let me know. I am not above accepting any help anyone can give me. Thanks.