My name is Cathrine—most people call me Nona—and my family is my whole world. I’m a mother, a grandmother, and a woman trying with everything in me to hold my family together through the hardest time of our lives.
This year broke me in ways I never imagined.
I survived a devastating head-on collision that left my leg severely injured and my health unstable. I’m still fighting every single day just to get around, just to breathe, just to stay strong. And now, I’ve been told I need another heart surgery. When the doctor said it, I felt like everything inside me collapsed. I’m terrified, but I’m fighting because my family needs me.
And they’re fighting their own pain too.
My husband, Regino, was deported… and the emptiness he left behind is something we feel every day.
But no one feels it more than our son.
He misses his father so deeply that it hurts to watch. He wants his dad back. He needs him. He asks about him, he aches for him, and no matter how strong I try to be, I can see the sadness in his eyes. He’s just a young man wanting his father by his side through all of this, and it breaks my heart that I can’t give him that right now.
On top of everything, our dog—my son’s dog, his best friend—is very sick. I can’t afford the vet care or even to put him down gently, and I’m being forced to watch this innocent little soul suffer. Seeing my son cry over his dog, feeling helpless because I can’t ease either of their pain… it’s a heartbreak on top of heartbreak.
I’m trying so hard to stay strong, but the truth is:
I need help.
I’m struggling to survive, to make it to my appointments, to fight through this surgery, to comfort my son, and to keep our little family together while we wait for the day his father can come home.
Every donation—no matter how small—helps us breathe again. It helps me get the care I need, it helps me be there for my son, and it helps us take steps toward healing and reuniting our broken family.
Thank you for reading my story.
Thank you for caring about a mother, a son, and a family just trying to hold on.
💗 With love,
Cathrine (Nona)
+cathrineriverayanez.paypal
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