Star Wars fire pits raise funds for woman with Lyme disease
Melody Eschete had no idea a firebreathing Darth Vader was coming to her rescue until she read it on Etsy.
Her brother, Ron Spragg, hadn’t told her yet.
Spragg, a Calgary family man and volunteer baseball coach, makes fire pits inspired by Star Wars characters in his spare time to raise money to help offset Eschete’s Lyme disease medical bills in Louisiana.
She was browsing her brother’s Etsy shop recently and stumbled upon an area where he describes wanting to help her.
“I just started crying uncontrollably,” said Eschete, a registered nurse who moved to Louisiana from Calgary in 1993 during Alberta’s health-care reform.
“I just fell to my knees, and I was just overwhelmed from the love.” Spragg said he owes her. “I’ve never really shown her how much she meant to me,” said Spragg, watching small fires in his R2-D2-, Darth Vader- and storm trooper-themed creations.
“She’s done everything for me since I was a little kid. My mom and
(My sister) was my rock, really, and raised me. ... So I really owe her. It’s my turn to give back to her. RON SPRAGG
dad separated early and my mom was always sick, and she was just always there.”
Eschete was the hospice and inmate volunteer director at Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, but health problems ultimately cost her that career.
She was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2014 after a year racking up $300,000 in bills for testing and seeing numerous specialists.
“The Lyme’s gotten into my heart, my brain, my kidneys and my joints,” she said.
Her specialist theorizes she was infected by a tick while jogging through fields in Calgary’s Queensland area before she moved.
The past few years have been the most intense, with medical treatments costing almost $6,500 per month.
Her husband’s insurance helps, but it can’t cover everything.
It’s anyone’s guess how much of a dent sales of Spragg’s fire pits will actually put in her extra bills, but Eschete is mostly excited about the awareness he’s bringing to the disease.
Spragg has plans for a bunch of character-themed fire pits, always with his sister in mind.
“She was my rock, really, and raised me. She used to beat up boys for me before I grew,” he said.
“So I really owe her. It’s my turn to give back to her.”