LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — When a Lexington woman's health took a turn for the worse, her Fayette County Public Schools family stepped in to offer their support.
Stacey Vankleeck was the first face both students and visitors saw when they walked into Lansdowne Elementary for years as registrar for the school.
"Nobody can replace her," said school principal Jennifer Fish.
The school is home for the Vankleeck family. Stacey started as a parent and Fish a teacher before joining the administration.
On Tuesday, Nathaniel Vankleeck returned to the school without his mom. Her chair sat empty as her school family tried to learn how to do some of her everyday tasks.
Stacey suffered a hemorrhagic stroke on October 20. It left a large amount of blood in her head and hospitalized her for nearly 10 days. Nathaniel says her school family was there along the way.
"It's nice to see a community here at school being able to help take care of my mom in a way that we do as a family," said Nathaniel. "They all reached out. They've shared their thoughts and prayers with us and they've offered to do whatever is needed to be able to help take care of my mom and help us with all of our busy schedules to be able to try to make sure that she always had someone there to take care of her and be there with her and support her."
Stacey returned home on Tuesday. Her school family has already set up a meal train for her.
"Immediately we sent things to the family. We knew they were going to be in the waiting room. We knew that they needed cash for parking and meals and that they would have out of town family coming in and we wanted to do everything we could to let them focus on Stacey," said Fish.
With the extended stay in the hospital and recovery period after, Stacey is expected to need a lot of assistance. On a school employee salary, Nathaniel says her family and friends hope to alleviate some of the financial stress.
They've created this GoFundMe to help cover medical expenses.
Her seat has sat empty for seven school days now, and while she has a long road to recovery, she sent her son with a message to help someone else.
"There was one day in particular, she was wanting to be able to brush her hair after a shower one day and if you wanted that to happen, you had to either bring your own or wait for one to be donated to the hospital," said Nathaniel. "She really would like to see in the future for people to be able to donate and supply supplies for just general day-to-day stuff for people living in the hospital for extended stays."
