Hi Everyone,

Many of you will not know that my life has changed drastically over the past couple of years. There I was, working at the same job for nearly twenty years. Homeowner. Loving fiancé. Loving family. Credit good. Stability. Not wealthy by any definition, but a fair amount of savings. I had a good emergency fund and was working to pay off debt. Everything was going pretty swimmingly for a one income household.

Then, as life goes, things changed overnight. At the end of 2023, I was diagnosed with diabetes, afib, peripheral neuropathy, emphysema, and lung cancer. A tumor the size of a baseball in my right lung. Not metastatic, thank God. Needless to say, I was headed for cancer treatment and short-term disability. It was also right around this time that my fiancé, Karla Marie Van Zandt, moved in to my home with me. A plan we kept, regardless of my medical issues. I did six rounds of chemo, thirty days straight of radiation treatments, and topped it off with immunotherapy. Though I was raised catholic, I wasn't that religious, but I'm telling you, I'd never prayed so hard in my life. At the beginning of 2024 a combination of medical treatment, positive energy, the power of pure thought, and prayer, had saved my life. The tumor had shrunk to nothing. Gone. However, I was still suffering the effects of the cancer treatments, and the other diagnosis that I had received in 2023.

While they helped save my life, chemotherapy and radiation are poison, and they feel like poison too. When my short-term disability ended, I wasn't in shape to return to work, so I went onto long-term disability through my employer. I had gone from working hard every day in order to fulfill my dreams, to living on a fixed income, barely scraping by each month, depleting savings just to try to keep up. Over the course of 2024, emergency fund, gone, savings gone, credit score, tanked. I essentially stopped paying the credit cards in order to pay basic utilities, and medical bills.

Ok I thought. It's ok. I'm alive. Broke, but alive. Money isn't the end all and be all of life, I still had my Karla, my children, and really, a new family of children and grandkids lovingly shared by Karla, so Ok. It could be worse.

Then 2025. In April, Karla was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and by the end of August, she had passed away despite praying even harder. I'm still in shock. She was the love of my life, my future, my heart. Due to my recent heath issues, I thought that I would go first, and that she would be there beside me. Instead, she went, and I was there, beside her. The most horrible ending to the most beautiful and loving woman I've ever known. At 57 years old, I've never known a more loving and faithful companion, and now she's gone too.

So Andrew, you say, "how is sixty-five hundred dollars going to solve your financial woes? It's not very much money. Certainly not enough to fix everything that's gone wrong with your finances over the last couple of years".

Put simply, it won't. I know my financial woes are for me to solve, and I'm working on that diligently. Unfortunately, a couple of months ago, a drain pipe in my basement finally gave up the ghost. Corroding to the point where it's full of dirt, and not draining anything. Ugh. The concrete floor in the basement will have to be broken up to access the pipe, the pipe will have to be replaced, and then new concrete poured to fix the basement floor. Expensive! So this fund is for an emergency home repair. As winter is now closing in, and I no longer have any savings, I'm trying desperately to generate a solution. Creating a GoFundMe request is free, but not easy. As an independent person it's not easy to ask for help. I've looked at HELOC's and refinancing, but my credit isn't good enough for a HELOC, nor can my income bear another payment. Refinancing would raise my interest rate, and my mortgage payment. Neither are possible with my current disability income. So, even though it's difficult for me, I'm appealing to you all for assistance. At this point, the issue is big, and my options are small. If you're unable to donate, (Believe me, I understand) please consider sharing this link across the interwebz. The more people who see it, the better the chances of resolution. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Andrew J. Godfroy