Monday, August 22, 2016

When horrible things happen to wonderful people... an open letter to WWE

Dear anyone at WWE who is able to get this information to the right people:

Today I sent a message out to Seth Rollins via the WWE website. I also tagged him and Mick Foley in a Twitter post. And I'm going to re-post the message here, along with pictures of the kids who need this so much. So if you read this and have any contacts with the people at WWE who handle such outreach things, please pass the link along. I'll gladly provide them with contact information. (Does Vince McMahon ever get online? How about Stephanie?)

This is about the beautiful young woman pictured here, who apparently was hiding her pain so deeply that no one knew it. The picture was just taken in July.



This is the message I sent:

Dear Seth,
I am writing on behalf of a dear friend, and a HUGE fan of yours, Sarah Kelley. Her family is going through an extremely rough time right now. She's a mother of 3, well, now 2.
Her daughter Natalie was 19, and was a bright sassy shine of light in her mom's life. She was also an amazing force to anyone who knew her in any capacity. 
Last week, Sarah was in Canada for work (she works at Whole Foods in St. Louis, MO). On Saturday, she received a call from her ex-husband that their daughter was gone. The boys had gone to get her to go out to dinner, and she was unresponsive.
Sarah's work and others went out of their way to get her back to be with her family. And she is still the strong, sassy woman she always has been. But a part of her is broken. They think her daughter was having problems with undiagnosed depression, and took meds that she hoped would help, and accidentally OD'd. There are no set answers right now, all that is known for sure is that an amazing young woman is gone.
Last night, Sarah watched Summer Slam with her boys - and she actually felt like life was normal for at least a little while. She attended events in person when she could, and generally lost her voice from screaming and cheering the next day.
I messaged her today asking if she thought it would be okay to try to get someone from the WWE to contact her, because honestly, a hug from her wrestling hero (that would be you) would make a huge difference in her world right now. Her response was "HOLY FUCK!... That would be awesome!" Well, I wasn't sure how receptive she'd be to the idea, but I know now.
This is a message from her just now...
"Of course. And of course we love all the rasslers. Right now Ryan is wearing a SR t-shirt and Tom is wearing his Booty-O's t-shirt. Tom had to move his action figures out of the living room to make space for a makeshift shrine we have going. The boys have been just incredible. Feel free to throw out the fact that this little boy was the one to find his sister dead from an accidental drug overdose. There's an event in St Louis in December, right between Christmas and Tom's birthday on the 29th. I hadn't bought tickets yet but that was to be his big present this year. 😊"
So, I'm hopeful that someone actually reads through this, and is able to reach out to Sarah. She's on FaceBook as Sarah Wilkinson Kelley. 
Thank you for anything you're able to do. The WWE is known for its generosity and kindness and understanding when it matters. 
Sincerely,
Suzanne Mastaw

I'm not making this up. I'm not looking for anything for myself. I just know my friend is in pain, and her boys are hurting, and something from their idols would help them tremendously. Sarah is so sweet, she didn't even ask for anything special... just mentioned that something when WWE is already going to be in her city would be awesome.

If you wonder just how avid of fans they are, here are some pictures...





And Sarah is a HUGE Seth Rollins fan. She has been for years. And I still like her (yes, I am more of a Dean Ambrose kinda gal). The pic to the right here (and above) is of Tom, the younger boy, dressed as Bray Wyatt for Halloween last year. I think he pulled it off quite well.

He's the one who found his sister. I think he's also the bigger fan of the brand.

He's the one whose WWE Action Figures had to be moved for his sister's shrine at home.

He was just playing with them this afternoon... Sarah sent me a pic while we were chatting online...


Again, if anyone from WWE is able to see this, please contact me so I can direct you to Sarah. She deserves so much more than she's been dealt.

If you're not a WWE fan, and want to help Sarah and her family out in a more practical way, there is a YouCaring page/fund drive set up for the family. You can find it at this youcaring.com link

Hug your kids. Hug your friends' kids, your family, hold your loved ones dear. Because you never know when your world could be ripped out from under you. And if anyone reading this does manage to get the information into the right hands, you have my gratitude.

ETA: I just realized my contact information isn't in here or readily available... If you can do anything to help, please send me an e-mail message. Thank you.