Three years ago, I came out as a lesbian while married to a man and began the long, painful process of trying to separate while maintaining the best life for my three young kids. After years of trying to grow through that transition and do it in the best way possible, I tried returning back to work and ultimately wasn't able to because I was unable to ensure the safety & wellbeing of the kids while I wasn’t with them. I returned to being a stay-at-home parent and just focused on trying to make my kids' lives the best that I possibly could. Due to financial reasons, I was still living with the person I was separated from, a situation that grew increasingly difficult as the years went on. Throughout 2024, my focus was on maintaining my kids' quality of life, living my life according to my values, and getting back in touch with myself. All of the while, I was also trying to juggle figuring out how I would ever get out of my marriage because I was feeling very, very stuck.

At the beginning of 2024 I met the person who is now my partner- Hanna. We became best friends that year. We developed a very special friendship, bonding over thrift & plant shopping and doing everything together with my kids. At the end of 2024 when our favorite thrift and plant shop was for sale, I approached my ex about it, and he said it would be a good joint venture for he and I. He proposed that we do it together and that he would support me with the back-end things like accounting and bookkeeping. He fully encouraged me in the purchase of the business because he said he wanted to be supportive of me as I tried to make changes to my life so I could live authentically.

Unfortunately, things didn’t happen the way I had hoped, and almost immediately after the sale was final, he was not supportive in any of the ways he had previously promised he would be. As things got worse, we ultimately reached a point where there was no going back to having an amicable relationship and having or preserving the friendship that I had wanted to save, and I had to file for divorce. Having barely purchased an existing business with no access to additional startup & small business funds, I am now faced with $20,000 of debt that I have accumulated from legal fees, with more expenses piling up.

Looking back I see all the ways that I was potentially given poor advice on purpose for the sake of financial control, and I have to wonder if I was encouraged to jump into this so quickly because it made me financially dependent on someone that I ultimately wanted to leave. Someone who had been, for the most part, quite supportive, changed his mind almost overnight regardless of the fact that neither of us could stay in a relationship we would ever be happy in. It's now the end of 2025 and I have run out of funds. I am no longer able to pay the retainer for my attorney and I have months left in a divorce process with a person who has ample access to funds, with no end in sight.

If you know us through Honest Thrift, we deeply appreciate you coming in and supporting the shop- and subsequently, me and my family. If you are not local or you’ve not been to the shop but you have the means to help, your contribution to this campaign would change my life and would greatly improve the lives of my kids, who are ultimately the ones most affected by any of this. Any amount helps!