Hope and Help When It's Needed Most

It was 1982 when Bonnie Braiker-Gordon received gut-wrenching news: Her 55-year-old mother, Claire, had suffered a traumatic brain injury, leaving her with chronic dementia-like symptoms that increased as the years passed.

"It was the most difficult time of my life," Bonnie says. "My kids were young. I was trying to help my dad take care of my mom."

By 1994, with her son's bar mitzvah approaching and feeling increasingly overwhelmed, Bonnie and her rabbi reached out to Los Angeles Jewish Health for help with short-term care.

"I just remember LAJH being my hero," Bonnie says. "Their professionalism, their competency…I can't describe how much it meant to me, knowing that my mom was so well taken care of in every aspect."

Six weeks and a bar mitzvah later, Bonnie brought her mom back home and made a commitment to herself that "when the day was right, I would give back to LAJH. And that's what I'm doing."

And she certainly has. In addition to leaving Los Angeles Jewish Health a gift in her estate plan, Bonnie volunteers as chair of the Legacy Circle, a group honoring people who have added LAJH to their estate plans. An estate planning attorney, it's a role that's right up her alley. And Bonnie is quick to gush about the good work LAJH has accomplished through those donations: providing in-home services and rehabilitation, even expanding into different campuses around Los Angeles.

"It's wonderful how LAJH has grown," Bonnie says. "And that's all possible with donations."

We'll help you plan a legacy that will make a lasting impact on LAJH. Contact Aaron Levinson at (818) 757-4416 or aaron.levinson@jha.org to get started.