Asking for help was always an embarrassing thing for me to do all because of my EGO. I’m now finding out that it takes a bigger person to not be afraid to ask for help but I still feel somewhat embarrassed. The truth of the matter is that I used to be a youth councilor and a teacher at a private academy for trouble youth. I work there for almost 3 years but a severe accident playing hockey. My own player ran into me and I ended up somehow bed written with a Cerebral & Brain Stem Concussion, 6 Herniated disks, torn ligament that connected to the skull to the neck, and a severe whiplash in which the tissue under the skull and over the skull was severely, for 4 years. My wife had to help me go to the bathroom and feed me because I couldn’t get out of bed and couldn’t even lift a bowl. It was a terrible situation.  The accident happened in 2008 and I only started getting up and walking with crutches in 2013. Never thought I would ever get up again. It was after months of therapy and healing that I started to try to find work. I slowly began doing small landscaping jobs and bought an old SUV off my mother in Law. It was later that I started doing small interior jobs and was learning all the trades with the help of different people. By the time 2015 came around I was a complete full rounded handyman.

I later started my Contracting business. Slowly and surely I started build up a small clientele and things were starting to go well. But I realized that I had to expand to make enough for my family because in 2018 My wife was pregnant with our 5^th. I had big plans on how to expand but then suddenly Covid hit, and everything slowed down. I went and worked for other people and did whatever I could to keep us afloat. Once Covid was over I had borrowed money and found myself just making money to pay those debts back with very little left over for our family bills. I decided this was no better time to expand. I hired someone who would help with phone calls and quotes, someone to help go see clients and more employees. I then incorporated my business officially and everything seemed to be moving smoothly. But then a big storm swept right through Ontario and the Kawarthas, the region in which I was residing and where most of my work was, had been hit hard. We had no power for days, some places for a week. All clients I had and was newly acquiring had decided to stop moving forwards with their projects and everyone decided they had to go through insurance for their repairs. So, for 2 weeks there was no work and I so many hours dealing with insurance companies for clients trying to get what was asking for the job. Only 10% of the insurance companies were willing to pay what was required of the jobs. But it was either take what they were offering or have no work at all. So, we manage for awhile but it was getting bad. On top of all this I soon found that my office guy I hired was not including his wages or mine or even the overhead costs for the business itself and I found myself doing jobs August 2022, & September 2022 out of my own pocket. So all the money I had made was put into those job. I still have jobs that are not finished and I’m waiting to make more money so I can go back to finish them. So, I started to book for November, December, January, and February, being the slowest time of the year up her in cottage country. It was then that I found out my mother was doing well. It was at a younger age that my mother was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia and from the age of 4 to 18 was not aloud to see her. As soon as I turned 18 I made my way to North bay Ontario and went and saw my mother for the first time in 12 years. We began a relationship we were never able to have and I told her that no matter what she was a good mother and she did the best she could. She cried for 3 hours like she had been realized from a burden she had been carrying for years. It was Later on that my mother was taken in by my aunt her youngest sister and with her care she improved drastically. She had lost bad weight, they were able to reduce her medication, she know longer had to take insulin for her diabetes. It was so exciting. But 2 years ago, the summer of 2020 I had a phone call from my aunt that my mother been diagnosed with Brain and lung Cancer and she had no longer then 6 months to live. But somehow with treatment and better eating the brain tumor was gone and the lung Cancer was diminishing. She was here longer then we expected and it was for the first time that my wife, kids, and myself were going to be able to see here for the first time in 5 years because of Covid. But it was Monday November 21^st that I got a call from my aunt and she told me that my mother passed in bed.

They resuscitated her even though she had a non-resuscitated listed on her medical. So, I made my way up to see her so we could as a family pull the plug. On Wednesday Nov. 23^rd we pulled the plug and it was quick because she had no brain activity. The sad thing was the doctor came and told us that she never had a heart attack, she never died from cancer but rather she had gotten an infection and it got septic and it got into her blood stream. It could have been prevented.

I new at this point I was in trouble. Due to the timing of her death it was going to affect all the bookings I do for January, February, and I already postponed a basement Job to start that week. But my aunt informed me the night I arrived that she had life insurance and that I would be receiving $125000.00 so all my financial stress all went away that very second. I offered some of the money to my aunt because she was the one who took care of here for so money years. But she said this was there so for me, my wife and 5 kids. She and my uncle were ok. I took some time with my family and grieved. I released the clients to go to another contractor or to wait till after the holidays. 1 client found another contractor and the other one changed her mind after the holidays to finish the basement. This was ok because I was getting insurance money. I spoke to every single company I was indebted to and those I owed money to that as soon as the insurance money had come in I would take care of all my debts and what I had borrowed from them.

I waited and waited to find out from my aunt who was the executor of the will and who happened to be in charge of the insurance policy. In the middle of the holidays she informed me that there was a problem processing the policy. So it was 2 weeks ago Today that she informed me that the broker that sold the insurance sold her Accidental Death Insurance not regular Life Insurance but that they were looking into it. It was just today January 30^th that she informed me that she was notified that there would be no money given to me. At this point I am devastated. We pushed every bill and debt you can thing off to the latest date. Everything is about to crumble, my business, our living, the people we owe money to, etc.

Our family needed this money so badly. I made decisions based on the fact that it was just a matter of time before we got the payout. The truth is it was going to save us. Instead everything is going to fall apart. I tried personal loans, business loans, and even private loans but couldn’t get anyone to lend us money cause I never started asking till it was too late. We need help. We have asked family, friends, even tried to find private lenders but to no avail. If there is someone who is willing and able to help I promise to build my business in such a way that I will pay it forward. Please I’m begging. I need to raise $16500.00.