One day recently, me and my mom discovered that we no longer had hot water in our trailer home, and there was some water trickling in the cracks of the kitchen.

We went back to check the water heater in the wall of my mom’s closet. Her clothes and a huge area of her bedroom floor were soaked, and part of the floor was falling in.

A plumber identified that our water heater had burst (the cap completely gone), had quietly been degrading inside itself where nobody could see the damage happening.

Now we don’t have a water heater, and we can’t install a new one until workers come in and replace all the flooring and carpeting in my mom’s room.

Before even that, we need to hire other people who can help us get the big bed, dressers, and other furniture out of her room.

Some of her stuff is going to have to be thrown away due to the water damage that flooded her room, and because of the mice problem we’ve been struggling with since the spring. (A family of mice took up residence in her room, eating stuff and pooping all over. We’ve already had local professionals come in to help with the mice, but until just recently kept finding some mice were still getting in or were alive.) My mom has been sleeping on the couch in the living room.

The plumber’s help and installation of a new water heater will be a little less than 2700 USD. On top of that, there’s costs for a new bedroom floor, movers (including some bigger items that might need to be brought to the landfill), sanitation (for the mice waste), possibly new furniture and clothes, and maybe even using hotel rooms to shower until our water heater is fixed. (The water at home is ice-cold right now, and temperatures outside are falling fast, with snowfall possible soon.)

We’re not sure of the end cost for everything yet. The goal cost here will change, and I’ll give an update when we know more.

Any sized donation you’d like to chip in helps. Thank you so much for reading this and for caring!