
Daughter and Disabled Mom in Need
Donation protected
Hello, my name is Laci and my mom's name is Nona. Three years ago, my dad decided to up and leave from a 15 year marriage out of nowhere. Leaving me at 23, to take care of my mom and our home.
My mom has been disabled for about 12 years now. She has epileptic and non-epileptic seizures and is still struggling to walk after a total-knee surgery she had in June. Her seizures are only somewhat managed by her meds as we still don't know the cause of her seizures. She has a lot of other comorbidities including severe migraines and short-term memory loss. I was previously going to college before the pandemic/before my dad left and now I am taking care of my mom full-time. I have been working on getting established as her official caretaker so I can get paid, but the paperwork has been complicated with our financial situation.
We have been financially dependent on my dad, as my mom only gets a small check from social security for being disabled. We made an agreement that he would still financially support us after he left since we had no other form of income. They didn't want to go through a divorce due to the legal fees. And now it seems he also didn't want to because he knew he would have to legally pay her alimony. Without notice, he stopped paying our rent and we didn't know until 4 months had passed and our landlord finally came to the house, leaving us in a financial hole. My parents still have a joint bank account and now he has started to withdraw all the money from the account, leaving us unable to pay bills, buy groceries, and take care of our animals. The better solution would be to get a lawyer and go through the divorce but obviously we can't afford to get a lawyer. He is taking advantage of the financial situation and backing us into a corner. He claims the solution is for me to get a job, and, as I said I'm working on becoming my mom's caretaker, but even if I got a full-time job somewhere I would only be getting paid minimum wage and absolutely would not be making enough to support us.
The amount we are asking for is to cover the rent for the month (we are paying more than our usual monthly due to the missing payments), bills (water, electric, phone), groceries, and animal food (we have 3 cats and 3 dogs). We honestly need more than our goal but I don't want to take advantage of this. I'm only asking out of desperation at this point. We appreciate any and all donations, however small. Even if you can't donate, sharing this would be super helpful. I hope you all understand our situation, and your generosity is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Organizer

Laci Mae Belle Rakestraw-Flores
Organizer
Riverbank, CA