[Artemisia] Help

[Richard Samul]

I have never asked my friends for anything, and I am ashamed to come 
before you now with this request, but I don't know where else to turn.

Please excuse the use of bandwidth, and allow me to introduce myself 
and tell you my story. My name is Richard Samul, and I live in Nampa, 
Idaho. Within the SCA, I am known as Earc Eideard Cearr, Journeyman 
Chirurgeon. At the age of 3, my birth father, Philip Brierley, 
abandoned myself, my mother, and my younger sister, and disappeared 
from our lives. My mother subsequently obtained a divorce and 
remarried, and I assumed my step-father's name. My step-father is the 
only real dad I have ever known.

In 1997, I was married, and my wife and I began to search for my birth 
father in order to obtain a medical history. My search was finally 
successful in April 2005, when I located my father in Durango, 
Colorado.

Unfortunately, fate intervened, and my father died of a massive heart 
attack while at his job, before I could contact him. After an 
investigation, it was discovered that Phil listed both my sister and I 
as next-of-kin; in fact, after speaking with several of his friends, I 
discovered that Phil talked about us constantly to them, but was afraid 
to contact us. Perhaps he feared what the intervening years had done to 
us, after all, it had been 34 years since he left us.

My father lived his life from paycheck to paycheck, never planning for 
the future. As a result, there is no inheritance to be gained from him. 
In fact, what little money he had will be eaten up by paying his last 
expenses. As the eldest child, it has fallen to me to give Phil a 
proper burial.

http://home.appleisp.net/~scascot/brierly%20contract.pdf

The above PDF file is the bill I have received from the mortuary for 
Phil's cremation, in the amount of $1,825.36. It is the least expensive 
option that I have been offered. Both my mother and my sister refuse to 
help in this, saying that since Phil never did anything for us in life, 
we owe him nothing in death. I, however, feel differently. True, my 
father did nothing for me during his life, but despite anything he may 
have been, he is still deserving of my respect now that he is gone. My 
only regret is that I will never get a chance to ask him all of the 
questions I wanted to ask.

As my father was a veteran of the US Army, his burial will be provided 
for by the Veteran's Administration; however, expenses relating to his 
cremation will not be. I cannot afford to pay for this, having used any 
savings I had during the last 8 months of my unemployment. Right now, 
my father is in "cold storage" at the mortuary (literally, according to 
the funeral director, frozen), and I cannot bear that thought. Because 
I am not local, the mortuary is insisting on payment up front before 
they will cremate him and release his ashes to me.

So, now I ask: please help me bury my father. Any donations to my 
PayPal account will be appreciated and used to help defray the costs of 
cremation. Any excess money will be donated to an appropriate charity. 
My email address is scascot at appleisp.net, and my PayPal ID is scascot.

Yes, I am aware that the PDF shows both my mailing address and my home 
phone number. I am leaving them in there to show that this is not a 
scam for money, should this email get passed on. I am 100% legitimate - 
you may also contact the mortuary to verify that Phil Brierley is, 
indeed, there.

Thank you for your consideration.

-- 
Richard Samul
aka Earc Eideard Cearr