It’s the call every parent dreads. Late at night, long-distance. An unfamiliar voice sharing unfathomable news. Your child has been in an accident, and you need to come right away.
The Kropf family received this call from Albany Medical Center when their 18-year-old daughter, Alexa, was critically injured in a tragic hit-and-run accident. But racing to Alexa’s side wasn’t as simple as driving across town. They left their Long Island home and drove four hours to Albany, wracked with uncertainty. After arriving to be with their child and absorbing her dire prognosis, they needed immediate support.
“What are we going to do? Where are we going to stay? Who’s going to take care of her? Is she going to live?” Alexa’s father, Jim Kropf, recalls all these questions racing through his mind. “Then, for Ronald McDonald House to come through the way they did, with support and lodging and a place to rest and get a good meal — with all the stress that we went through, they eliminated so much of it for us.”
In the month after Alexa awoke from a medically induced coma and recovered from injuries that required extensive brain and leg surgeries, the Kropfs lived at the Albany Ronald McDonald House, receiving housing and meals free of charge. But when Jim recalls their experience, it’s the small comforts that meant everything — and still resonate today.
“You’d come back from the hospital at maybe 11 o’clock at night, and there’d be a chocolate chip cookie waiting for you. It sounds very small, but to sit down there — with someone who’d come sit with you or give you a little look and a smile — you just feel the warmth and support. The people at Ronald McDonald House relieved our stress and made us feel comfortable and at ease in that moment we were there. I can’t even describe it.”
Now nearly two years since her accident, Alexa continues to improve. She’s working, taking online college classes, and spending quality time with family and friends. But Jim knows those earliest days — and finding strength amid the trauma — wouldn’t have been possible without Ronald McDonald House Albany.
“When a family member is injured or sick or whatever it may be, you’re just looking for somebody to give you that hug,” says Jim. “It may not be the physical thing, but that’s the feeling you get when you’re at Ronald McDonald House. Something is giving you that big hug you need.”
