Hello friends and family and anyone who is stopping by to read my story. 

My mom, Shirley, passed away at the end of January from complications of Covid-19. It all happened so quickly, I really didn't even have time to say goodbye before she was on heavy oxygen and unable to speak. She died alone, in a nursing home, 1200 miles away from me. It was a real punch to the gut, and was NOT how this was supposed to go. I hadn't seen her in a year due to Covid. We had never been apart for that long - ever.... She isolated like a champ, but ended up in the hospital with a compression fracture in December and that led to her getting exposed and infected. First Covid shook her to the core with isolation, then it took her life. 

She was all I had and I was all she had. I was an only child and she was a single parent. I grew up feeling loved and cared for - she made sure of that. She worked and went to school. She used to ride her bike to her job at McDonalds when I was little because she couldn't afford a car.  She worked second shift and third shift at  times because the pay was better. When I was in high school, she would have to miss concerts, plays, sports, and all the other events parents got to go to. But, she would always be a chaperone on weekend trips so she could support me and be there for me. Of course, I had amazing grandparents and uncles, and she made sure we spent lots of time with them. We certainly weren't well off, but I never felt deprived because we had each other and she worked hard to keep things afloat. 

My mom taught me to look at the flowers and the trees and the beauty around me every day. She was my cheerleader always and my counselor when I needed one. She was my history and my storyteller. She taught me to be a good person and to care about everyone around me. She lived simply and struggled most of her life. She raised me as a single parent at a time when being a single parent wasn't accepted. 

I lost my entire connection to my past when she died. I wasn't ready for it.  Now I find myself alone. I didn't just lose my mom....I lost my entire immediate family - she was it. 

I never thought I would have to ask for anything like this, but this last year has been anything but normal. Now I find myself in a horrible position. I manage and work at my husbands catering business. So, we have been hit incredibly hard by the downturn in the economy due to the Coronavirus pandemic over the last year. Business has been reduced to less than half of our normal business, because of this, I don't have the 'extra' funds to pull for me to assume all of the costs that are going to go with closing up my mom's affairs. Mom didn't have life insurance and was on a fixed income. Plus, with me having to travel across country to take care of her apartment, I won't be able to help at the business and am looking at having to reduce our menu and lose sales on top of everything. 

I am looking for help with final costs for my mom, help getting myself to Minnesota and back, something to cover my time so I can skip my paycheck from our business and put that money into covering extra employee costs while I am gone - all of this so I can clear out her apartment and close up her affairs. I need to get to Minnesota in the next couple of weeks so I don't have to incur another month of rent on her place. 

I would be so grateful for anything that you might be willing and able to give.  My heart is aching and the fact that I don't have the resources myself to take care of my mom in her final journey is devastating and almost embarrassing. I am not good at asking for help, never have been. I think I got that from my mom... <3 Now, I need to ask for help for both of us. Thank you for reading my story....