Hi, my name is Francesca Harlan and my husband is Richard Harlan.

Asking for money is not something we take lightly or something that we want to do, but unfortunately, we have had some unfortunate circumstances that have left us struggling to make ends meet. Mind you, we both work two jobs and have our 2 youngest of eight kids, 8 and 9 years old, that live with us.

It started this summer when I had to get a new vehicle; my old Acadia just gave out. I did opt for a new car vs. a used one because it was going to cost me almost the same per month anyway. We saved up and had the money for taxes finally, but unfortunately, tragedy started to unfold.

On October 9th, we got a call that no parent wants to hear: one of our older sons, Nick, had gotten burned while trying to light a bonfire for himself, his mom, and his little brother. Unfortunately, he had 60% of his body burned. He was doing well at first; he was able to walk and talk and even started getting skin grafts that were taking really well. Sadly, he developed an ulcer which caused catastrophic damage, including three surgeries and mini-strokes. On November 10th, our gentle giant was gone. We are still devastated that a young man full of life, our 24-year-old son, is gone.

Through this time, we made several trips back and forth to and from Ohio, where he lived with his mom. Although we both work full-time and with part-time jobs also, we lived paycheck to paycheck. Richard was fortunate to have vacation days to use for most of our times off, but I had to take unpaid leave each time, which I would do again in a heartbeat to see Nick. We opted to use the money saved for taxes on our trips for gas, food, and necessities for our younger kids that were with us through all of this.

Sadly, just a day shy of a month that our son was taken, my mom passed away. Just another added level of stress.

We are struggling to catch up. We are stressed to the max and just looking for some help. We are behind in rent and the taxes on the car, not to mention just trying to survive.

I want to add that at the funeral there were donations and also a GoFundMe, which was all given to his mom. We did not receive any money from anything that was donated in Ohio.