Darcy Sety is a retired mathematician. Her calculations might intimidate some, but to her, they served as a distraction from worrying about her friend Grace.
"I always refer to her as 'my friend Grace.' So, whenever I'm talking to my friends, I mention 'my friend Grace,'" she said.
Sety met Grace many years ago at a local food pantry, and from that moment on, it became clear that Grace needed her help.
"She had to choose between food and medicine, and there is no good decision there," Sety said.
Grace's medical problems seemed endless.
"Grace had heart problems, lung problems, intestinal problems," she said. "If you name it, she had it."
Sety stepped in to care for Grace. But as she spent time inside her home, she found a tremendous amount of unpaid medical bills.
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"She had no way to pay them," Sety said.
Grace's medical bills had gotten so out of hand that she stopped going to see a doctor.
"It would hurt her soul because she owed the doctor money, and if she went there, she'd be accumulating an additional charge at the doctor," she said. "It was her pride that prevented her from going."
The burden of medical debt weighed heavy on Grace's heart.
But last week, that burden was lifted.
"Grace Alice Haynie, 85, passed away April 24," she said.
"Everyone is offering me sympathy because it's tragic. But for those of us who watched Grace, this is the release Grace needed."
So, instead of grieving, Sety is crunching numbers.
"We see stories all the time about people being wiped out by medical debt. I jumped on it right away," she explained.
When Sety heard about NBC 5's partnership with RIP Medical Debt and our commitment to eliminate medical debt for North Texans, she instantly thought about Grace.
"I thought about the times that she didn't tell me she was slowly going down the tubes with medical debt," Sety said.
Sety has made a $1,000 donation to RIP Medical Debt in Grace's memory, which will eliminate $100,000 of medical debt.
But she's not stopping there.
"I would like to achieve forgiving $1 million worth of debt," she said.
No matter how long it takes, she's determined to keep donating.
Sety is hopeful that, if she's watching, she's make "her friend Grace" proud.
Grace was just one of the 64 million Americans in our country struggling to pay off medical debt.
But thanks to her friend and others who have donated to this cause, we are able to fight this crisis head on.
Your donations have helped a teacher in Athens, a cancer patient from Garland and many others who desperately needed this lifeline.
