To those with the ability to help,
I am a father of two teenage boys (16/15) desperately in need of help. My oldest son, 16, is clinically diagnosed with Aspergers. He is the sweetest child you would ever meet, but has problems connecting with his peers socially. He had a problem being bullied his last year of middle school, so my wife and I decided home school might be the best option for him moving forward. His only friend was/is my youngest son, who is 15.
I am a veteran of the US Army and for the time being….married. For the past three years, I have had to travel for work Monday thru Friday managing the installation of large indoor cellular systems throughout the southeastern United States. During this three year period and without my knowledge, my wife secretly obtained a pain pill addiction. She took care of the finances/household so I could focus on work, which usually consisted of 12 hour days. All I ever wanted to do was relax once coming home and enjoy the short time I had with my family before having to leave again.
I was never a husband that constantly looked at our joint account. I was always trusting, because she always made it seem like things were handled. Little did I know, things were about as worse as they could get. About three weeks ago, I received a call from her brother while out of town asking about his sister’s/my wife’s welfare.
I was a bit stunned with the question as she never gave any signals of anything being bad while I was home. He stated that she had been speaking to other family members about suicide. He asked about our marriage and how things were going. I told him we had spats every now and then, because she slept most of the time I was home on the weekends, but thought it was because she was tired from taking care of the duties of the house and our children during the week.
I would come home and there would be stacks of laundry and the house would be a mess. Most of my Saturday mornings consisted of doing laundry and cleaning and at times, I would get frustrated. He asked if we were having money problems and I responded by saying, “Last I knew or what she had claimed to me, we had several thousands of dollars in the bank.” He asked if he could come to the house that weekend, approximately 4 weeks ago to check on her and I said, “Sure”.
I called my work immediately and requested a few days off. I came home and immediately started digging into our finances. To my surprise, not only did we not have several thousands of dollars, our account was in the negatives several hundreds of dollars and I had just been paid a few days earlier. We had an overdraft option with our bank, so I never knew when I was out of town making purchases. I never pulled any cash out and usually only ate once a day, so I could try and make a little extra off the per diem I was receiving.
Her brother arrived the next day and we all sat down for a talk. She admitted she had a pain pill addiction and could not function without them. She was taking a high dose several times a day and would get very sick without them. She was Cash Apping herself several hundreds of dollars a day to support this habit from our joint account. Not only had she wiped us clean financially, we were several months behind on all of our bills (about to be evicted), and she had taken several payday loans out all over town.
I immediately called to get her into an in-patient treatment facility, where she has been the last 2 weeks and will be for the next 60-90 days. Her brother has tried to help financially, but can only do so much. Now, I am left with a ton of bills that I am trying to figure out how to pay so my two sons and I do not get put out on the street. I am desperately in need of atleast 5,000 dollars to pay back rent before we get evicted. Every time I turn around, it seems someone different is asking for money.
I have gone to just about every place I can to receive help and am desperate at this point. Any help from someone with the ability, would be greatly appreciated. At this point, I am just trying to maintain a roof over my two boys head and food for them to eat. I am a hard working individual who has served his country and has always strived to provide for his family. This is completely degrading for me to have to do, but I am running out of options for help. If I can ever get back to a place to help someone in need down the road, just know I would willingly and gladly for the opportunity someone with the ability gave me during my time in need.
Attached is what I am currently behind on. My utilities are included with the place I rent. I get paid next Friday and can only afford around 2,000 dollars of this while still being able to feed my children for the next two weeks after that.