Saturday flea market to benefit McCook couple

Don and Janine Hall of McCook have health problems, and a flea market fair Saturday will help raise funds for the couple. Their family includes their two sons, Jason of Lincoln and Justin and his wife, Heather, of Kearney, who are expecting their first baby in April. Janine's parents are Delbert and Orian Fritz of Bartley. Don is the caretaker at the Sen. George W. Norris House in McCook; Janine is a substitute teacher and has just finished writing a soon-to-be-published book called, "Knowing that He Will." (Courtesy photo)

A flea market fair at McCook's former post office in downtown McCook will benefit a McCook couple whose health issues may separate them at a most crucial and inconvenient time.

Janine Hall said her worst fear is that her husband, Don, will be in a Denver hospital undergoing a lung transplant while she is in a hospital in Lincoln having thyroid surgery.

Don and Janine moved in McCook a year ago in June, following Don's retirement after 14 years as administrator of El Dorado Manor Nursing Home in Trenton. His future includes a lung transplant, the only treatment for the very rare genetic lung disease -- interstitial lung disease, or pulmonary fibrosis -- that both he and his sister, Betty Hardie, of Tulsa, Okla., suffer.

With interstatial lung disease, Janine said, the lungs become "leathered" and less able to absorb oxygen. A lung transplant has a 90 percent survival rate, she said.

Don is being placed on a transplant list, and because he has A-positive blood, a common blood type, Janine said, the transplant "could be soon."

But the distance between McCook and the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver poses a threat to the process. Don will need to be close to the hospital, so the Halls plan to move -- temporarily -- to Denver in anticipation of the surgery, and for the three months of close supervision following surgery.

"Don will need someone with him day and night for at least three months, and that will be me," Janine said.

However, Janine's health is threatened by hyperthyroidism, which takes calcium intended for the bones and puts it into the bloodstream, which causes kidney damage. "I have only about 20 percent of normal kidney function," Janine said, "and it's dropping." Doctors at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lincoln plan surgery Oct. 23 to remove one or more of the para-thyroid glands in Janine's neck.

"My greatest fear is that Don will be in the Denver hospital at the same time I'm in the Lincoln hospital," Janine said.

The couple has insurance, but, of course, it doesn't pay for everything associated with doctors' bills, surgery and hospitalization, nor will it pay for living expenses in Denver before and after Don's surgery.

Janine is convinced that God talked to Sharon Huegel of McCook, "and I heard," Sharon said with a gentle smile, as Sharon plans a flea market extravaganza to help the Halls with expenses.

All day Saturday, around Huegel's Hutch in the former post office in downtown McCook -- near all of McCook's annual Heritage Days activities and the thousands of people who come downtown for the festivities -- Sharon will offer booth space for vendors selling antiques and collectibles. Sharon herself will offer discounts within her and her husband David's own antiques store, and donate 5 percent of all their proceeds that day to the Halls.

A consignment table will be available for someone who may have just one or two antique or collectible items to sell, and Sharon will take care of those sales, she said. Ten percent of the sale of each consignment item will be kept for the Halls, she said.

Peace Lutheran Women's Club plans a bake sale and will donate all of its proceeds to the Halls; the group would appreciate any donation of baked goods to add to their offerings.

Another table will sell popcorn. In the post office's back drive, booths will be available for people wanting to set up their "garage sale" tables.

Set-up will be from 8 a.m. until 8:30 a.m., and sales will continue until about 5:30 p.m.

Sharon said she will charge a very reasonable booth rent; contact her at (308) 345-2585, in the mornings until noon; and at (308) 345-7564 in the afternoons and evenings.

The Republican Valley Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans will provide supplementary funds to the fund-raising effort.