Life’s journey is difficult enough even when the path is smooth and uneventful. For one Rossmoor family, the last couple years have had more than a few potholes.
Matt and Elissa Horan, both 48, met as second-graders at Hopkinson Elementary School.
Matt, a Rossmoor native, matriculated to Oak Junior High School for his middle grades schooling. Elissa, a native of College Park East in Seal Beach, attended Pine Junior High School before the two would again become classmates at Los Alamitos high School from which they both graduated in 1979.
They met up again in 1999 at their 20th high school reunion and began dating a month later, when they attended a party at a friend’s home.
A year later, at another party hosted by the same friend they became engaged. They were married in a small ceremony in Las Vegas. Both had children from previous marriages. Elissa had two daughters, Carrie now 22 and Vanessa now 24. Matt has a son, Dylan, now 18 who resides with his mother in Moreno Valley.
About 10 years ago, Matt began to notice his hand curling up and some involuntary muscle movements. He remembers noticing the symptoms and says he immediately began to think these symptoms were similar to those described by actor Michael J. Fox for his Parkinson’s disease.
The ailment is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, which often impairs one’s motor skills, speech and a loss of physical movement in extreme cases (former heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammed Ali is another high profile person fighting the disease).
Matt was soon diagnosed as having it too. While Matt doesn’t visibly suffer the muscle spasms or twitching that Fox or Ali display, the illness was enough to force him to relinquish his job as a truck driver career. He had spent 27 years behind the wheel working for two different companies.
He had climbed out of the cab of a truck and worked in the receiving end of the shipping industry until the effects of the Parkinson’s began to affect his ability to write and he was forced to retire and rely on disability to help make ends meet.
The couple persevered, living in the Rossmoor home in which Matt grew up. The Horans did everything they could to make ends meet. They recycled bottles and cans while relying on Matt’s disability payments and Elissa’s income from her position as a service coordinator for a printing press company.
In 2007, Elissa, who had thought her childbearing days were a thing of the past, found out she was pregnant. On July 29, 2007, she gave birth to their youngest daughter Haley. She will turn 3 years old next month.
While Elissa was surprised, Matt was thrilled as he says he always wanted a boy and a girl and that his unplanned break from work allowed him to spend more time with his family and allowed him to spend more time raising his young daughter.
Then in 2009 the family was rocked by an unexpected series of events when Elissa was suddenly laid off from her job of 15 years. Three days later the double whammy was delivered when she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. She was told it would eventually require a double mastectomy and surgery to remove her lymph nodes.
While undergoing chemotherapy, Elissa found strength from her experience in bonding with other women going through the same type of treatment.
While this dramatic turn of events in Matt and Elissa’s lives have required significant financial belt-tightening and adjustments, the couple says they have found incredible support from friends and local charitable groups.
Elisa’s friends, Heidi Stangeland and Lin Bennett, owner of Endless Summer at 124 Main Street in Seal Beach, have joined forces to assist the Horans who also received help from Los Alamitos-based We Care. The non-profit provides help to meet the emergency needs of low income individuals and families.
Stangeland and Bennet are assisting the Horan’s with their recycling efforts and an employee of Bennet’s, Hannah Wing of Seal Beach, has pitched in designing bows. They call them “bows for benefits” and have wristbands championing Matt and Elissa’s cause. They are sold in the shop to support efforts to help the Horans.
Endless Summer also accepts recycling materials that are picked up by Matt and Elissa.”
This has really turned us into big environmentalists,” Elissa said, laughing.
Not only does help come from the local community, but at a time when so many are putting together care packages for U.S. troops fighting abroad in the war on terror, a member of the US Army, Curtis Custer, serving with the Army Corps of Engineers, sent a care package back to the United States to help the Horans.
Included in the package was $250 Super Market gift card to help out with the groceries. Custer became aware of the Horan’s story through a social networking site and sent them aid when he wasn’t building or demolishing bridges as part of Operation Iraqui Freedom, Stangeland said.
“They were a tremendous help during the holidays last year,”’ Matt said.
The family has also received assistance from Helping Hands, a local group that provides home cleaning services for families in need of assistance.
Yvonne Rodriguez of Helping Hands put the family in touch with McCarthy Construction, which helped the Horans with plumbing repairs and home improvements.
Elissa is also quick to thank her longtime friend heidi Stangeland of Seal Beach who often cooks and delivers meals for the family. Both Horans also mentioned the ad that Phil Trani of Trani’s Restaurant has provided. The popular Long Beach Boulevard restaurant also collects any recyclable items (glass, plastic containers for the family. The couple held their wedding reception at the restaurant.
So far 2010 has been a bit kinder to the Horans,”A lot better than 2009,” said Matt, whose Parkinson’s has apparently been well-managed so far with medication. “My doctor, Dr. Omid Omidvo has been great in helping with getting me the proper medications.”
Although Elissa’s Cobra benefits are drawing to an end they’re determined to fight through their physical obstacles and the Horans are looking forward to Haley attending the same elementary school as Mom and Dad when the time comes for her to enroll at Hopkinson.
