hi. I’m Savanah. I just recently turned 21, I live in the south, and I lost my best friend to Covid-19.
My Daddy was my Hero. He was everything from an Army Man, a friend, a brother, but most of all, he was a proud-loving father, who took pride in his life’s accomplishments and that included his family.
I wish I could begin to explain the type of bond that me and him shared but I could go on for hours, and that’s not why we’re here…
My Daddy was 43 years old when he got Covid-19 and died in his sleep on September 13th, 2021.. The worst day of my life.
It’s all kind of funny how he passed…
The sequences that led up to it. What happened during the event. And what happened following his death. It all still doesn’t make sense to me and it’s been almost exactly a year since it occurred.
See the thing is, me and my daddy told each other everything. So the fact that he got Covid-19, (as a smoker) around September 1st and didn’t tell me himself that he was sick, is beyond me.
I didn’t find out he had Covid until just 2 days before he passed, from my stepmother of almost 15 years. She made it sound like he was getting better, like I had nothing to worry about…
But then just two days later, at 10:30PM I got the most devastating call of my life… It was my stepmom telling us the news. She told me and my boyfriend not to rush over to the house, that she didn’t want me to see him being taken out in a body bag. That she would take care of things that night, and to wait by the phone for her to call back and let me know when it would be okay to come over to the house…
So fast forward through the funeral, the awful visitation, and all the stuff the public is involved in, and that brings us to the week after his burial when everyone went home. The visits from friends and family stopped. The calls stopped. The bringing us home cooked meals had stopped. And it was just me, the stepmom, and my boyfriend.
Now at this point, a hearing of the will is at least talked about, life insurance policies, survivors benefits, beneficiaries, etc. But what I was given, was a brief verbal statement from my stepmom about the very little amount of stuff I was entitled too.
Which at the time, made no sense because my daddy always told me how much he had saved and put back for me throughout the years. I was entitled to his GI bill that he signed over into my name upon being honorably discharged from the military. He took a life insurance policy out on our new construction home that was bought in 2020, so that the house would be paid off had anything ever happen to him. I was supposedly, according to him, supposed to be a beneficiary on his policy’s, hold a share in deed to the house, was in his written will, etc. Basically everything that I got completely screwed out of and left with almost nothing. I don’t even have more than $1.50 in my bank account/towards my name at this point…
I tried hiring a lawyer when I found out she logged into his accounts *BEFORE* he passed and removed me as a beneficiary. I even found a document stating that she had opened up a bank account just 3 days after my daddy had passed, and deposited over $10,000 from the only account they shared together. Saying it was money she had saved up on her own and was rightfully hers… So at that point she was starting to catch on to my findings and she smartened up real fast. Because she knew I still didn’t know about the deed to the house and the will. So I got a lawyer and paid the retainer with the last amount of money I had left in my account, based off the knowledge that I was still owed half of the house, and that there was still a will out there possibly stored at the Army Airfield he was stationed at last.
Well when my lawyer contacted her and her lawyer, stating that I would be taking her to court to become the administrator over his will, had she not provided me with the documents I was entitled too; She took immediate action into stating that they were going about it as if there was no will, that he had ripped it up for some reason she didn’t know of. Also stating that I was not on the deed to the house, and I never was. Almost like a last little dig at me to make me feel as if my daddy really did leave me with nothing, right before sliding me some hush money under the table. Which I was almost left with no choice to take at that point. She knew my lawyer had no further grounds to look further into the investigation. She knew I was broke and paid my last bit of money towards the retainer because my tire went flat and I was riding around on a donut for over a week and I never saw her once try and help me out with. Which I already know my daddy would’ve been pissed at her not even giving me some money to go buy a used tire. He always helped me take car of my cars and made sure I was never riding around unsafe.
So push comes to shove and I end up taking the money she offered… it’s still the only thing to this day that I’ve received from that woman in regards to my father’s estate. But anyways, it ended up being way less than what I thought it was going to be because she took her own “fees” out of it, along with what I owed for my phone bill, car insurance, etc. In the months that I was on their bills following his death.
The amount of money I ended up with, let me and my boyfriend drop ship and take a mini 4 day vacation. We had both been through the ringer and put our relationship at a test during this whole process, so I thought we deserved a small get away of our own.
During these months following the death of my best friend, I am no longer the Savanah I used to be, I have severe depression and take Zoloft for it, I haven’t been able to hold a job due to the fact that I was moving around a lot between staying with family and my boyfriend on and off. Another key factor there is just the fact that I’ve been so low and so gone during all of this that I’ve been fired from 3 jobs since trying to get back into the working class.
Being fired from a job is not in my vocabulary and quite frankly I’m very embarrassed to say that I’ve ever been fired. I stayed for 5 years at my first job as well as holding down additional jobs at the same time. I’m a very reliable employee/person, and I would hate for that reputation to be slandered by any means.
I’ve tried getting back into the groove of things but literally having my dad on my mind 24/7 doesn’t help… So that’s why I’ve created my own business/online shop, designing custom made vinyls and decals with a Silhouette Cameo 4 that I’ve invested in when I got the hush money from stepmom. And actually my business is dedicated to him in his honor because if it wasn’t for him, I probably would’ve never explored this option for my future.
Business is doing good for just starting out and I’m actually not in debt with it.. yet.
The more I grow my company and the more orders I get in, the more cost it will be. And I’m worried that I might possibly get myself into debt by trying to grow my company.
So I thought by coming here today, to share my story, not to make you feel bad for me, but to help me turn my Daddy’s death into something positive!
I can’t do anything about the money I was robbed of, and I can’t do anything about my daddy being gone. But what I can do is try to turn a horrible situation into something that I know my Daddy would be proud of his babygirl for accomplishing, especially in his honor. So please, if anyone happens to stumble upon this mess, please please donate! $100 would seriously go a long way for me right now.. So anything helps, truly.
Last thing I want to leave you with is my PayPal and a sincere thank you for your time if you made it all the way through this. God Bless
paypal.me/savdc01