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Early Onset Alzheimers widow in need of help

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Hello, my name is Stephen Settles and I’m in desperate need of help in an attempt to raise enough money to cover my mother’s living expenses. My mother, Belinda was diagnosed in 2014 with Early Onset Alzheimers disease at the age of 51. I quit college to care for her alongside my father and my little brother who was still a child in school at the time. Over the course of several years I watched as her condition deteriorate and the overall negative effect it had on the morale of my family. Watching her memories and cognitive functions slip away was the most challenging thing I had ever faced in those days. We saw some very hard times as my mother is still too young to draw money from her social security even to this day. I was forced to work multiple jobs to help out my father who worked hard to maintain the growing medical expenses and bills. Then on March,16 2018 my father suffered a severe heart attack while my mother was hospitalized for other reasons. I believe he literally put too much stress on himself. After months of fighting for his life he ended up dying on November 1st, 2018. I was the only person by my father’s bedside when he passed. Not even my little brother could be there because someone needed to watch over our mother. That is the single most devastating memory I have even now. Unfortunately we haven’t had any help from neither my father’s or my mother’s side of the family. It’s always been hard to convey how serious my mother’s condition really is to family members who refuse to educate themselves to know Alzheimer’s disease is a physical condition of the brain deteriorating and not a state of mind more akin to depression. Following a few months after my father’s passing my little brother and I received the life insurance money that we’d assume wouldn’t actually come. It was pleasant moment of relief because our grandmother had only given us a few more months to live at the family owned house where we lived at. Together my brother and I found an Assisted Living Facility that could provide the care my mother desperately needed. It was hard process to accept but very quickly I saw how a sense of community brought happiness back into my mother. I was able to seek therapeutic help for everything I had endured and eventually I was offered an assistant manager position at a store less than 5 minutes away from my mother’s new residence. I also maintained another job to help pay for the apartment I got and to ensure I would never be forced to shoplift for food ever again.

When The Covid-19 Pandemic struck I found myself laid-off from both of my places of employment. I have been forced to contribute everything I have to whatever immediate bill needs to be paid whether it be my mother’s or my own. Within less than a month’s time I won’t have any finances to provide for either of us and I fear for our immediate future. In October of 2019 the rate for my mother’s monthly living expense will increase 4.75% to $4,052 and I’m faced with a challenge of spending more than ever before while having less than I’ve ever had. If we’re not able to receive help I don’t know how I’ll be able to provide for us much longer. I fear that I might end up losing my own home because I can’t contribute enough to my mother’s cost and pay my own bills. Please, I urge whoever this message reaches to take action and help save our lives.
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $20 
    • 3 yrs
  • Kaori I
    • $111 
    • 3 yrs
  • Joshua Reisz
    • $60 
    • 3 yrs
  • Kelly Oaks
    • $25 
    • 3 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $36 
    • 3 yrs
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Organizer

Stephen Settles
Organizer
Memphis, TN

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