I am a single 36 year old with 3 children. I have 2 girls and 1 boy. My girls are 15 and 17 and my son is 3. My 2 girls father walked out of the picture on September 8, 2019 when he was pulled over and arrested for Felony Driving Under the Influence (BAC 0.421) and 2 counts of Felony Child Endangerment. I say walked out of their lives because he made the choice to drink and then drive with our children in the car. Neither one of my girls has accepted contact from him since this incident although he has tried. My sons father walked out of his life before he was even born. I was 3 months pregnant when his father was arrested on a Parole Violation for 1st Degree Sexual Assault with Penetration and was sent to prison. I was unaware that he even had a criminal past let alone for something this serious. I moved back to my home town on March 14, 2020 and the very next day COVID shut everything down. Despite the hardships that came with COVID, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy in May and life was slowly returning to normal for us. On June 19, 2020, 4 weeks after giving birth to my son, I took what was supposed to be a temporary summer job working for a friend of mine in her tanning salon. This very shortly became a grave passion of mine. Not because I love to tan but because there is so much more to tanning than just tanning. I learned so much about the human skin and was even given the opportunity to work with a few local Dermatologists and The Cancer Treatment Center as we offered a Red Light service that was extremely beneficial to patients. I ended up turning my passion into my career, soared into the unknown world of tanning and managed this salon for a little more than 3 years. While I did not ever get certified as a technician, I can now upgrade electrical from 1-phase and 2-phase to 3-phase, disassemble and assemble tanning machines, perform the needed maintenance required to keep the beds running, and educate the public in regards to safe and unsafe tanning because yes there is safe tanning. On May 25, 2022, the salon was sold to new owners, a lawyer and a physical therapist, and I was asked to stay as their manager and I was a little too quick to agree. Of course I was going to stay, I love what I do. The new owners were great, until they weren’t. We signed a 3 year hourly based contract that stated I would be paid for no less than 40 hours a week and would be paid accordingly if I worked over 40 hours in a week. In the summer of 2022, I practically lived at the salon. I was putting in between 50 and 100 hours of overtime the whole summer and on many occasions was told they expected more out of me. I tried not to let their expectations and rude comments get to me but as time went on the comments got worse and I was breaking. In April of 2023, my contract was broken and I was no longer being paid for 40 hours a week. It was decided that my hours were to be cut to between 12 and 18 hours a week and I would only be paid for those hours and was only paid for extra hours during the periods of time where I was the only employee. I also was paid at a regular rate for all overtime worked. When I confronted the owners and reminded them about our contract, I was told, “If you don’t like it, sue us.” I knew then there was nothing I could do and like I said earlier, I love what I do and was willing to put up with the way I was being treated. Then throughout the summer of 2023, I had to call in, which I never do, as I was in and out of the hospital for numerous health reasons like 19 kidney stones, 2 hernias and a few other reasons. I also called in when my son was kidnapped by is fathers family and while he was only gone for 22 hours, I was in a state of shock and hysteria and would not have been able to perform at work. Unfortunately, every time I called in, the salon was closed due to me being their employee at those times. It was more often than not that I was their only employee. This only led to more tension between the owners and myself. In September of 2023, 2 new girls would start and I would train them both as this was one of my duties. One was doing well and the other not so much. So when one of the owners paid me a visit on October 26, 2023 and asked for a report on the 2 girls, I said just that but with more details. At the end of our conversation, I was informed that I was being let go as it was time that the salon be represented by a much younger and prettier face. I was devastated, still am and now I’m faced with financial ruins. There is not another salon in my town to work for and the worst thing is that when I asked the owner what I was going to do, she simply said without any emotion, “You shouldn’t have divulged all your time and energy into this career path and divulged some into a backup plan.” I didn’t know I needed a backup plan as we signed a contract for 3 years. What I haven’t mentioned yet is that in December of 2020, my son was diagnosed with Tracheomalacia. He was born with his right airway completely collapsed. It is often that children born with this condition outgrow it between the ages of 3 and 5. My son however has not. There has been zero improvement and now we are faced with having to place stints in that airway. He will have to have them replaced every couple of years as he grows. He has already undergone 4 major procedures. We travel 3 hours one way to see one specialist and 7 hours another way for his surgeries. I unfortunately am struggling financially and am about to lose everything but more importantly my car. Without my car I cannot travel with my son to see his doctors and for his surgeries. The finance company has already begun calling threatening to reposes my car and I am at a loss. I feel hopeless. I have applied everywhere in town and for the most part, no one will be doing any hiring until after the holidays are over. I have already explained to my children there will be no Christmas this year and things are going to get very hard for a few months and they were more than understanding. We have actually decided not to put up our tree this year with the hopes that it will help ease the disappointment come Christmas morning. I am asking for any kind of help you may be willing to give our family. We are ever so grateful to any kind of offering.