Testimonial: GerRee Hinshaw on the Denver Actors Fund

“One Sunday morning last April, my husband, Lee, called me from his parents’ Washington farm with the unimaginable news that his dad had just died in an accident. My son, Manny, and I were on a plane within hours and we stayed with our family in Washington for a week. As the week drew to a close, I began bracing myself for the sudden re-entry to the work week and how tough it would all be on Lee. It occurred to me that nearly everything in the fridge at home in Denver would be spoiled and that we would be arriving to DIA late at night. I was quickly resigning myself to feeding Manny PB&J “parental failure” sandwiches that first day or so back. Then I got an email that the Denver Actors Fund intended to support us with meals upon our return to Colorado. We were stunned. Overwhelmed with gratitude. It was completely unexpected, this show of love from my theatre community, some of whom didn’t know me from Adam, let alone know Lee and his family. Grief is a messy process. It is distracting and confusing. It is painful and revealing. And because of The Denver Actors Fund, we did not go through it alone. And Manny didn’t eat a single failure sandwich. That week.”