By David F. Rooney
About 60 people came out to support the Beisel family and their young baby girl who has been in and out of hospitals since she was born four months ago.
The Sunday evening concert at the Seniors’ Centre was a true family event with live music by The Lonely Souls — Doris Folkens and Darrin Herting — and Seal Skull Hammer’s Alton Gowen, Darrin Herting and John Fleming. There was also a delicious dessert auction and a silent auction.
All proceeds from the evening went to Cory Beisel, Whitney Kendrick and their children Clifford and Neve. Both youngsters have significant health problems and Neve has been in and out of hospitals in Revelstoke, Kamloops, Edmonton and Vancouver since she was born four months ago.
The baby girl is plagued with abdominal issues that, says her dad, Cory, baffle her doctors. Born 10 days early, Neve was not a big baby. She weighed five pounds, 13 ounces and had trouble breathing and feeding. She could not breast feed nor would she take a bottle. In fact, she was hooked up to feeding tubes and required assistance breathing. On top of that one side of her body is larger than the other.
These problems are distressing and they have meant that Neve has been in and out of hospital since the day she was born.Just four days after she was brought home to Revelstoke the infant developed an infection at the site where her feeding tube entered her stomach. They took her to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops for three days before they returned home to Revelstoke and then the couple went back to the BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver where her two-and-a-half-month-old brother Clifford had a check up.
Clifford, or Ford as they like to call him, has some physical development issues involving one eye, his spine and his pallet. Other than that he is a very cheerful and extremely bright young boy. He interacts well with adults and loves to do puzzles. At 30 months of age he finds 50- and 60-piece puzzles a breeze.
Although Whitney and Neve could not be here — they are in Vancouver where they have been for weeks — Cory and Clifford attended the concert and he was grateful for the community’s support. The concert was organized by Whitney’s friends and co-workers Rubyanne Meda and Doris Folkens. The amount raised was not known Sunday evening.
Here are a few photos from the event:
