Hello to All,
First of all I must say, thank you for taking the time to read my story and thank you if you even consider helping me. It’s a blessing to be in a position to help others and I pray I am able to do the same one day.
My Story:
I am a single Mother of two under aged children who I care for full time (four total- one deceased and one adult child). Here recently, I have fallen on hard times. For the past couple years I have been trying so hard to recover from health issues while trying to survive and keep a roof over my family’s head.
It started with Covid. When Covid happened, my family and I became displaced. Struggling to survive with four children who depended on me and I could barely keep a roof over our head. We lived out of hotels and AirBnB’s which ever I could over and moved around alot while trying to do viritial school. We ended up losing my oldest to gun violence and I was faced with being homeless while guiding three children through virtual school. One struggling to get through his senior year while grieving his big brother, another starting kindergarten and entering school for the first time which had to be remote while I struggled to guide her while fighting Covid myself and trying not to pass it to them.
I fought everyday to work full time in a warehouse, take care of the kids while not allowing grieving my child to get the best of me. We prevailed! My hard work paid off. I was able to secure my family a roof over our head and begin rebuilding. I was so grateful, God knows.
Fast forward to not even a year later, I randomly suffered a heart attack while laying in bed on a Saturday morning. I was in the hospital for a couple days when I had another heart attack. Doctors were baffled at first because here I was a perfectly healthy female under the age of 40 having a heart attack and no one knew why. After test they found a tear in one of my arteries that was causing the heart attacks which would continue until I was placed on medications to help stop them. Doctors beleived my condition was caused by grieiving and stress until my heart just couldn’t take anymore. I had to take the medications for a year while my heart healed itself because I was too young for surgery.
I could only be out of work one week to recover because my income was the only income that kept us afloat. I accumalted over $20,000 in hospital bills due to not having health insurance and have struggled to stay independent since then. Thanks to rent assistance programs available during Covid and shortly after, I was able to survive and God I am so grateful for that. I’m not quiter so once I was healthy enough I begin taking on task to earn extra income because at this point bills were behind and I needed the help.
Since then I have managed to move my family out of a bug infested apartment which was the best I could do during Covid. We are now in a clean apartment but I have gotten behind recently. I have had ongoing complications since my heart attack and when I over exert myself I have severe panic attacks that leave me out of commission for days or weeks at a time. My only income currently is a full time job that is considered a temp job so I don’t earn paid time off, sick days and I can not afford the health insurance offered.
I am facing eviction currently and stressed about the thought of my family being homeless again. I am still working but struggling to come up with the fees that are continiously added to my late rent, as well as keeping groceries in our home and just the day to day necessities my family needs. My utilities are behind and my vehicle that I normally use to Uber and do Amazon Flex to earn extra income in need of some serious repairs that I’ve been putting on the back burner due to not being able to afford. Our apartment is not furnished due to me having to throw away most of our belongings to prevent bring the bugs when we moved.
I honestly have never just looked for handouts and have worked my hardest my entire adult life to provide for my family. Sometimes good people struggle trying to do the right thing and just need a helping hand. I want to be able to catch on my bills up rent with evicition filing happening any day now since I am two months behind, repair my car so that I can continue to use it to earn money for my family and at least put some beds and a dining set in our new place so our mattresses will not be on the floor and we can have a place to share our family meals.
Unfortunately I do not qualify for government assistance and there are no rent assistance programs available like there was doing Covid. My credit is low due to hospital bills and past due credit cards which I have used for groceries and survival. I can’t qualify for a loan and do not have anyone in our lives that could help us in this situation.
If you find it in your heart to help us with any donation amount, I will be so very grateful because it will bring us a step closer to stability. I am grateful for any assistance I can receive and I promise when I am in a better position I plan to pay it forward because this type of generosity helps the world go round.