I am writing this letter in hope that someone is in a position to help you will be able to have a significant impact on my mom’s life. My mom has a judgement against her for 1.2 million. My mom has owned the hair salon in New York for over 30 years. In 1998 an opportunity for another salon came up and she decided to take on a second location. Three months into being there my father had a major stroke. My mom took months away from the businesses to help my father with his rehabilitation. They said he would never walk again, thankfully he is able to walk and take care of himself. The discovery channel actually came and interviewed him because they were amazed at his recovery. In between helping my father recover I helped manage the business and kept everything running. She loves what she does. She has staff that has been with her for over 30 years because of the way she treats them.
During her time in the Great Neck salon she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was hospitalized. Again I went and helped manage the salon. I wanted her to let the business go at this time as it was not doing well and it was too much for her. She said since she recovered from the surgery she wanted to stay and keep everyone working so they all had jobs. The brain tumor clouded her smart business judgement for a few years and the salon was not doing well. She owed the landlord a great deal of money as the rent was very high. She entered into a stipulation with him he gave her a reduced rent to get her to stay and pay the back rent. She was able to pay all the back rent and continued to stay at the reduced rent. This went on for approximately 2.5 years. She was having seizures every so often due to the brain surgery and hiding the fact that the salon was struggling. The reduced rent period ended but her attorney and the landlord told her to keep paying the reduced rent. Not known to us at the time her attorney was very sick and passed shortly after the landlord decided to sue her for the difference in the rent. The landlord is an attorney and was well aware that the time for the reduced rent expired 26 months earlier and they did not want her to enact the good guy clause so they accepted the reduced rent and knew that they could go back and get the difference at a later time. The reduced rent was $7,500 and the regular rent was 26,000. They acted in bad faith and my mom was not in the best frame of mind. This lawsuit started in 2013 and there have been several attempts at a settlement but nothing she offered was ever agreed upon. Since 2013 this has been a tremendous amount of stress on my mom and the entire family. She has been through a great deal of medical issues and seizures from all of the stress. She won the initial lawsuit but ultimately lost the appeal. She now owes the difference in rent and about 500,000 in interest plus attorney fees. The total is approximately 1.2 million.
This whole situation has been very stressful on her for the last 7 years, she is living on social security and has her home with a high mortgage. She will be forced to sell everything she has worked for her entire life to pay them off. All she wants to do is enjoy the rest of her life and spend time with her grandchildren. This is going to destroy her. She has never asked for a handout her entire life; she has always worked hard and helped people. She helped 2 employees buy their first homes when she was making money.
Please understand I am writing this to explain what has been going on in my family a great deal of it caused by this lawsuit. We are by no means wealthy at all. We all work full time still and are just living a middle class lifestyle. Yes there are a few properties two are the homes we live in and all carry a fairly large mortgage. My mother worked very hard all of her life and she just wants to be able to enjoy her time with her grandchildren, if we are forced to sell to pay this large sum of money it will probably destroy her. She has lost the last 7 years of her life with constant stress and worry. She will ultimately be left with nothing and no income whatsoever to help pay her bills. I just want her to be able to enjoy the rest of her life and not have to struggle and be stressed anymore, if the money was there to pay I would not even hesitate to say pay and get the stress out of your life to her. Unfortunately it is not, it would have a major impact on her life and honestly I do not know how she will handle it. We are by no means well off. We all work and try to make ends meet. I am not looking for pity, I am looking for compassion. You could change a family’s life. I have faith in people that they have compassion. I truly would not be asking if she could pay without it having a huge impact on her life. I am sure if you were in my position you would do the same for a family member. Paying the reduced rent was not done maliciously. She truly believed that was the current rent. She would have left 2 years earlier had she known since we were not making money at that rent but she was happy to be able to keep her employees working and she loved what she did. Was it a huge mistake she made, yes but the landlords were getting rent and they accepted it for 26 months. She is living on social security and a very limited budget. Unfortunately her years running the salon in Great Neck caused her to go through all of her savings. It was never profitable but she loved the salon so she kept trying. We just want to move on with our lives. It has been an exhausting 7 years and I just want the stress gone from her life. She would and has done anything she could to always help people when she was in the position to. Please Please consider doing something that will change a person’s life for the better. I have always lived by the phrase pay it forward and have taught that to my children, we have never been in a position to monetarily do it but we do it through acts of kindness and help. This is what makes me see there is goodness in the world. She has been given a lot of bad advice by attorneys and I truly just want her to have peace in her life. Any amount that you are able to give will help alleviate some stress from her life. I promise to continue paying it forward. My children and myself work with a Youth Ministry and will continue giving our free time to helping people in need. Please consider helping ,my mom. You will change a family’s life.
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Thank You
Marlena