Please help the sun shine for my family
Hi everybody,
I would like to share my feelings about somebody who is special to me. She is the type of person who would give her shirt off her back & give it to you. She is genuine, self-less, giving, loving, honest, thoughtful & the best kind of friend you can have, if your lucky enough. I am talking about my cousin Dawn Ribaudo Adinolfi.
My cousin bought her "dream" house a few years ago. She lives there with her 14 year old daughter Jordyn & a few pets Her dreams were crushed when Hurricane Sandy arrived and ravaged her life. When I say life I mean she was in the middle of moving her business, Charmed Accessories, all of her office equipment, pocket books, files, bins, all of her hard work within minutes .. GONE .. FLOODED. Along with more personal belongings such as her couch, tv, sentimental belongings such as a few boxes of pictures and things she saved from when Jordyn was a kid, all of her pictures from when Dawn was growing up, which we have been trying save. Her car was washed away and won't even start up.
The insurance adjustor told her that she will be covered for her home & flood insurance, which are the necessities, boiler, water heater, walls & electric panels, not her contents. That means, no couch, no tv, no personal items and everything for her business washed down the drain. No one, like many others, should be tackling these events on their own. Especially not someone who if you met her for one minute, you would love her and want to be around her as much as possible. Since I was a kid I always adored my cousin Dawn. I wanted to be just like her. She used to always treat me special give me bags, earrings, her clothes when I was big enough to fit into them.
I know this story isn't any
different from everybody else's. I copied and pasted what Dawn wrote on
her facebook wall the other day:
Please God help me stay strong
today. I know many people have lost more than I have and I'm fortunate
in a lot of ways, but the reality of things two weeks after are settling
in. My life is turned upside down and I'm doing the best I can, as are
thousands of others. To say its depressing in Rockaway is an
understatement. Our homes and neighborhood, that we have all worked so
hard for, have been ravaged. It may be "only" basements and cars for
some but add to that photos and keepsakes, things that can't be
replaced, along with no heat, no electric, trying to fix or clean what
you can when it's colder inside your house then it is outside and trying
to ignore the horrible smell, just wanting to be "home" and back to
"normal".., gas lines and insurance companies to still deal with, not
being able to take time off from work, and shortage of money and
patience.. It is all weighing on us. Maybe the sad reality hit when the
insurance adjuster spoke the words that I dreaded might be true, that
all we will be covered for under our home and flood insurance policies
will be the necessities, boiler, water heater, walls, electric panels...
Not our " contents"... Contents that are just "things" but "things"
that are sentimental, or acquired by our many hours of hard work. The
days and nights that were spent working instead of being at home with my
daughter. Nothing has been handed to me. I am proud to say that I have
done this all on my own, and I have worked my ass off, questioning the
choices and sacrifices I have made along the way. The financial
struggles of the past year was difficult enough and I was finally
getting back on my feet. I will not let this get the best of me. I just
ask God to please give me the strength to keep my spirits up. I know
that one day this will be behind me and my neighborhood will be as
beautiful as it once was.... So time to go inside and start going
through the mounds of photos to see what can be saved.
Please help me out. Please help my cousin Dawn & her daughter Jordyn get back to normal with a roof over their head & in their beds with their furry animals where they belong.
Please make a donation & help my cousins get their lives back together. Please help the sun shine on Beach 136th street for them again
Thank you
Jessica
