Aid for Patrice, Jaime & Their Pets

Hi friends and community.

If you don’t know us, hello! Let me introduce you to myself and my family. My name is Patrice and my wife’s name is Jaime. We have four beautiful fur children; 3 black cats named Bagheera, Wasabi, and Marceline; and one goofy pup named Adora.

For the past 5 years or so, we have been struggling to keep our heads above water. In 2020 Jaime and I were the victims of a random attack where Jaime was beaten severely and I was stabbed in the back. Since then we have been slowly drowning.

Since 2020 Jaime has not been able to work consistently due to a slew of health struggles, some chronic she’s been chasing all her life, and others that were the result of the traumatic injuries from 2020. She has had two fairly severe brain injuries, a total hysterectomy, an appendectomy, and more ER visits than I can keep track of. She’s currently applying for disability, but it is a long and thankless process.

As her spouse I wanted more than anything to be able to take care of her and let her heal. I ignored my own needs for a long time in the hopes that she would magically recover. When it looked like she was on an upswing in 2023 we made the decision that I should quit my full time job because it was having extreme negative effects on my mental health. Unfortunately due to many factors (everything from rising grocery prices to my own penchant for wanting to help people before helping myself) I have not been able to get the help I need and I have also failed to manage my freelance career well enough to get the bills paid. It doesn’t help that in response to economic uncertainty, many of our creative contract opportunities have dried up or altogether disappeared. With income being so unpredictable, we have also lost hundreds (maybe thousands) of dollars to overdraft and late fees, money that would have otherwise been spent actually paying those bills.

Over this past year, despite our own struggles, we also extended help to a few friends who were in desperate need of housing and financial support. We are learning the hard way now that we can’t pour from an empty cup.

After five years of struggling we have reached our breaking point. The lights and water have sent shut off notices and we haven’t paid our rent in full in months.

As we pull our boundaries in and tighten our proverbial belts, we have been applying for help from the government but as those systems face major cutbacks we are still in need of support. And so I am humbly asking you, my friends, loved ones, and wider community, for support. We know no one is having a great time financially in 2025, but if anyone has even a few dollars to spare it could make a huge difference to us right now.

Thank you for taking the time to read about my family, thank you for giving if you can and helping us ask for help if you can’t.