Three years ago, Lori Hall Steele and her son watched “Bambi.” The ensuing conversations prompted the freelance writer to pen an essay, which was published in June in the Washington Post. In it, her little boy asks, “Will you look after me when I’m a grown-up?”

On the morning after his fourth birthday, Jack waits for an answer. There’s so much that can happen in this beautiful, crazy, too-mortal planet, and I know truth and its consequences are too much for a child. For my child. For this moment. He will learn the whole truth in time; he will learn that life is as capricious as it is constant. For now I want him to return safely to Neverland.

I tell him I’ll always be here for him, one way or another. Always always always. Just like my mother is here for me. Just like I was there when he was 3. It is an impossible promise, a gamble with his trust. I secretly pray I don’t let him down, not on this.

Lori had this talk with Jack and wrote this essay before she was diagnosed with ALS. Jack is 7 now, and his mom’s in the hospital. She’s on a ventilator and unable to work. She’s a single mom, and the bank is about to foreclose on their house.

Please go to Save Lori’s House to learn more and, if you’re able, to help save Lori and Jack’s home.