Welcome Home Joan! Raises Funds to Help Woman Paralyzed by Shooting

ATLANTA, GA (July 10, 2013) – When he went on a murderous rampage in April 2011 in Jamaica, Joan Brown Llewellyn’s husband killed her daughter, her parents and her brother—and he tried to kill Joan,  too. Miraculously, she survived but was left paralyzed.

Now, after months of rehabilitation at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Brown Llewellyn is living in Decatur with her sister, Evelyn McFarlane, and preparing for a new life as a motivational speaker. But first Brown Llewellyn needs a bathroom.

Knowing her story, Atlanta friends have mounted a fundraising campaign, Welcome Home Joan!, to help retrofit a powder bath to meet her needs.

“Currently, Joan and her sister must drive more than an hour each way to Shepherd Center three times a week just so Joan can take a shower,” says Amir Levin, one of the project organizers. “Joan is paralyzed from below the shoulders and lacks the resources to make her home wheelchair accessible. Welcome Home is raising money to retrofit her sister’s home and remodel the bathroom and add other improvements to make the home more accessible and comfortable.”

Levin adds that “there’s a major shortage of public and private funds for helping disabled individuals and families who can’t afford to retrofit their homes. We hope that this project will create greater awareness about this issue. We have teamed up with Friends of Disabled Adults and Children (FODAC) to make this project happen, and all contributions are tax-deductible.”

Joan dreams of having her own bedroom—she currently sleeps in the living room of her sister’s two-story house—and the retrofit will install pocket doors in the living room to give Joan the privacy of her own bedroom. Levin says the project, which will add wheelchair ramps and make other handicapped-accessible improvements, will cost $18,000. Donors can go to www.WelcomeHomeJoan.com  to make a tax-deductible contribution.

“In Joan’s case, $18,000 will go toward making her home more wheelchair-friendly,” says Harris Haley, another one of the project organizers. “However, we hope to raise more than that to pay ongoing medical bills, rehab charges and the other expenses associated with what she has been and will still need to go through.”

Joan Brown Llewellyn and her daughter, 17-year-old Jorgjhan “JJ” Flynn, had run away from Joan’s abusive husband, a corporal on the local police force, when he followed them to her parents’ home in Three Hills, St. Mary, and shot them all, including her brother, on April 7, 2011, before killing himself.  Brown Llewellyn survived being shot in the neck.  She spent six weeks in hospitals in Jamaica and Atlanta before starting outpatient treatment at Shepherd Center.

“Being able to wash my own face in my own bathroom would be wonderful,” says Brown Llewellyn, who temporarily lost her sight and could not move her arms immediately after the shooting.  She has made incredible progress and has regained some motion in her neck, shoulders and arms. She now can maneuver her chair and sings in the choir at Mountainside Seventh-Day Adventist Church, whose members will help with the construction.

Brown Llewellyn’s remarkable physical achievements and her spirit are praised by Shepherd therapists, who describe her as someone who does not want her disability to stand in her way. However, now her path toward independence is impeded by the physical limitations of her home.

“I want to be as independent as I can,” she says with a smile. “I want to walk again someday.” 

To hear Joan Brown Llewellyn tell her story or to make a donation, please visit to www.WelcomeHomeJoan.com or search YouTube for Welcome Home, Joan!

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Friends of Disabled Adults and Children (FODAC) is a nonprofit organization formed and operated for charitable purposes (www.fodac.org). Their services include, but are not limited to, providing durable medical equipment and supplies, as well as home and vehicle modifications, for disabled adults and children.

Contact: Amir Levin, WelcomeHomeJoan@gmail.com  or 678-222-3344.