My name is Nancy. I inherited the family house from 1911/1935. Today we had an emergency I can’t afford. I have been recovering from damaged spinal nerves and a right knee for the last 5 years. It meant not being able to work and have been denied disability. But the nephew I raised and I have been managing.

Just two hours ago he tried to turn off the water to a toilet so he could replace the float mechanism. The shut was stuck so he put stuff on it to help unstick it. After leaving it for an hour he came back and just tapped it. The pipe in the wall must have snapped because he could suddenly hear water running in the wall. It flooded down to the dining room/ front hall and on to the basement. With no homeowners insurance, because I couldn’t afford it when I was downsized out of a job from an art museum over a decade ago. Also, my neighborhood had a serious rise in payments because of the area down the massive hill from us having flooded every time we had a hurricane. In spite of the fact that we are easily over 150 feet above the highest level of those floods in the last 50 years. This has meant several of my elderly neighbors and myself have had to drop our homeowner's insurance. Honestly, the only answer one of us got about that rise was because some idiot could not read a topographical map and understand how much higher up we are from that branch of the Chester Creek.

I am not so prideful as to admit when I need help. I cannot afford the plumbing repairs we need. I spent all of my savings last fall to have the roof repaired from a leak that damaged some of the upstairs back hallway. And while sitting out front going through boxes of paperwork that were to go to a historical society that got wet was when we heard the loud cracking sound of the tree limb and the thud it made on my house. It was about two hours later when I heard the snap and the shift of this massive branch and found that it had punctured my roof when it fully separated from the tree.

I have a YouTube channel and my story can be found on Thisoverstuffedhouse. It explains a lot about how I got an overstuffed house, my medical challenges these last few years, etc. I posted the video of when the water pipe burst. One of the stuff on the lawn of what we had at that point and another video of the tree limb.

I need your kindness right now. I cannot handle this alone. Plumbers are not cheap and this is going to mean walls have to be opened up. I can’t do this alone. And because the universe just hates me today, a big tree limb form a neighbors tree has decided to snap off and land on my roof puncturing it. I can't seem to add photos through my phone but will put them on here soon. All while I have the flu. Honestly, did someone put a curse on my day?

If I end up with more than is needed. I will pay it forward to either the Food Bank my brother started at his church (he passed away last November) or to another Go Fund Me. I set the final goal at $7,000 as that should cover the tree, the roof, the plumbing and the replastering of the walls they are going to have to tear in to.