Hi, my name is Dora-Hannah Thilmony, I am trying to help my sister. This is going to be a bit of a roller coaster, so buckle up.

If you are close with me, you know that my family situation on my moms side has always been difficult. Regardless, I am attempting to raise funds for my oldest half-sister Anna.

Annie is my moms first child, she is 20 years my senior. Time after time, year after year her life has spiraled downward. When she was very young, her father was put in prison in communist Bulgaria where he committed suicide. At 18, our mom shipped her to the US to live with her uncle. Shortly after that, she got involved with the wrong people and began having drug problems which she struggled with for a long time. Several years later, when I was very young, Annie was in a terrible car accident that left her scarred and with a traumatic brain injury.

She recovered from the accident and even became sober, her life was starting to improve greatly. Not long after that, she became pregnant with her son, Emanuel, and moved from St. Louis to Minnesota where my parents and I were living.

She lived with us for awhile and then got her own place. When my nephew was little, there were a lot of problems with his father. He was absent, dodging child support, etc. This never improved and eventually he disappeared completely.

For years things we're relatively normal for her. A single mom making a living as a waitress supporting herself and her son, it wasn't always easy but she managed just fine.

Things started to go down hill again during Covid. Restaurants shut down, she was out of a job. Income eventually came to a complete halt. This triggered something in her, her mental state started to decline. She began dumpster diving and selling the goods on facebook/Craigslist to make a living.

However, it wasn't enough. Rent stopped getting paid, she was talking further and further behind. Then, our mom died suddenly in February of 2021 and everything really fell apart for her mentally. My mom was also virtually homeless prior to her death, with nothing to her name to leave us besides $2k in her bank account.

Her son was going to be going to college soon and she was trying to hold it down til then, with eviction looming over their heads.

The eviction came before my nephew would go off to his first year of classes, and he came to live with me for a few months, and my sister began living in her car. This was around 2022.

Since then, my sister has been living in her car full time here in Minnesota. In the winter cold and summer heat. She uses a gym membership to shower, and sometimes uses my place to do laundry. She spends her time at the local library for shelter from the elements.

It has about 2 years of this, and she is absolutely miserable. She is mentioning ending her life which is something she has never once brought up before despite all of her hardships. To complicate things further, my sister, nephew and I are all somewhat estranged. My nephew and I have a slightly better relationship than either of us have with my sister. We just don't get along, we haven't been able to get along since I was a teenager. I won't sugar coat it, Annie is not the most likeable and pleasant person. She is difficult, rude and her declining mental health is making it all even worse. Her and her son do not have a good relationship at all. The 3 of us are struggling to try and hold the scraps of our family together, but it's almost like a game of politics and is absolutely exhausting.

Not only is her mental health in horrible shape, physically her body is failing too. Numbness in her hands and arm, trouble walking, she can barely function. As well as being diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease (a disease of the thyroid). She probably has a list of illnesses that have not been addressed or diagnosed.

She is scraping by (i think) with selling things she finds dumpster diving. Truth is, I don't know how much longer she can or is willing to go on for.

It is no secret that I dont "like" my sister, we have had many many arguments, falling outs, and will go months without speaking.. but she is my sister and I do have love for her and it really pains me to see her existing like this. No one deserves that. It kills her to think she will never have a home again to be able to live with her son, or at least a place for him to visit her. I know that if she improves her situation, their relationship will recover at least a little bit.

Despite our current relationship, my sister was the one to come rescue me when our mom would get drunk and take it out of me. Every time I called her crying, or even if she just showed up and mom was drunk, she took me with her. I am still grateful she did this for me.

Some may ask why she hasn't been able to come live with me, and the simple way to put it is that it just would not have worked. There would have been some horrible blow out that would result in her being homeless anyway. My home is owned by my father, who really wants nothing to do with her. (again, very very complicated messy family stuff)

Some may also ask why I haven't been financially supporting her, and that is because I only do well enough to take care of my own things. I have bills, animals and my own small business Im trying to run. I have been able to help little bits here and there, but it is just not something I am capable of.

So I am asking for the generosity of my friends and the public to help my sister. I have been feeling very guilty that I haven't been able to help her situation as it gets worse and worse.

I dont know exactly what all she needs. It will probably be really tough for her to get an apartment due to the eviction a few years ago. Maybe I can convince her to go stay at a shelter, or some kind of home under the circumstance that I will help her financially if she listens to me. I honestly don't know how to navigate this, but it can't hurt to try and help.

She won't know about this fundraiser, all I will tell her is that it is purely my financial support, she refuses to accept handouts especially from strangers. I will tell her that she must follow advice/work on getting on her feet again to receive the money.

I am not concerned about her blowing the money, she's never been an excessive spender. She has been sober for probably over 2 decades from drugs, and I can't say I've ever even seen her consume alcohol. She has made bad decisions and gotten very unlucky in life, but she is not dumb enough to make her situation any worse. She just needs help getting out of it.

We also have another half sister, the middle sister who is 10 years older than myself. She lives overseas with her husband and kids. They are financially well off and offered little to no support after our mom's death. The husband was actually going to step in and take care of Annie's townhouse payments, but our sister decided to not let him do that. Needless to say, Annie and my other sister do not communicate anymore.

I hope this was simple enough to follow and understand. Obviously, there are so many more complicated details, but this is as simple as I could get it to convey the whole story without writing a 3 part novel series.

I'm sure there will be many other expenses to be covered, but I'm setting the goal to 10k. I may end up also making an Amazon wishlist to help her in the meantime/if she is able to secure a place for necessities and household goods.

I dont know exact costs of things, but I will be happy to update details and information as I go.

Donations from here will go toward:

- Gas, food, essentials, things she can benefit from while still living in her car.

-Car repair/replacment. I can't believe her Nissan still runs, it is definitely on its last leg and won't last another year.

- Down-payment for an apartment, as well as a few months of rent.

- Bills.

--She has overdue storage unit bills with all of her belongings in them. She has already lost one, and the unit that had anything of value that belonged to my mom was broken into and robbed last month.

--Car insurance

--Other unpaid bills she may have

-Medical help going forward that isn't covered by her stare insurance.

If somehow she finds this fundraiser or does not want to accept the help, I will just refund all donations and close it out.

If the fundraiser is successful and goals are met, I will keep it up until I feel that she is capable of taking care of herself going forward.

If you have any questions, or have other resources/help you would like to offer do not hesitate to reach out to me!

I will be making updates as things go.

Anything is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

- Hannah Thilmony