Sunday, June 14, 2015

Sick Cousin of Howard Stern Had to Set Up a Crowdfunding Website

On his June 1, 2015 satellite radio program, an exhausted Howard Stern spoke about how he attended a memorial service for his cousin Stacy, who died late last year and who Howard described as a fun guy.  Howard managed to attend even though his week of judging on America's Got Talent was very grueling and he claimed that "they work him really hard".

To be fair, if the judging involved horrid acts such as the one below, perhaps Howard has a valid point about being tired of watching such nonsense:



There is another side note to the story that Stern did not get to during his jam-packed show, which featured another riveting interview of Melissa McCarthy - Howard's cousin Stacy Gerber had to ask for money on a Gofundme website, as he had to close down his catering business after getting sick.

On the web page, Stacy's spouse said "[w]e have had to close our catering business that Stacy started over thirty years ago, creating closing costs and lessening our income significantly.  We also will be incurring hospital bills and rehab fees."

This appears to be the same cousin that Howard has spoken about on his radio show over the years, and an article about Stacy's 2009 marriage mentioned that Howard was his cousin.  In addition, a woman who looks like Beth Stern appears in one of the wedding pictures and a scroll down the list of donors to Stacy's Gofundme website showed the names of Howard's daughter and sister.  They were able to raise about $13,000, which is short of the $100,000 target (and is also less than the cost of some of the expensive leather purses that animal advocate Beth Stern often carries).

A story from last year indicated that medical bankruptcy accounts for a majority of the personal bankruptcies in the United States, and apparently even those with very rich relatives feel the effects of medical costs and the resulting loss of income after becoming sick.

In the meantime, fans of the Stern show should not forget that Bianca's Furry Friends still needs their money to help save lives (of cats).