Hello. My name is Ashton and I am raising funds to help my family afford the basic necessities we need to live. My father up and left us back in January 2020. He refused to pay bills or rent in favor of gambling it away online. He was abusive financially, emotionally, and unfortunately he was occasionally physical. 95% of my entire life was spent wondering if I was going to have a roof over my head the next month, where my next meal was going to come from, and if our lights would be on long enough for me to take a shower without a flashlight. It got better- only for a short two years. As my dad purposely quit his job during the height of Covid in order to ignore all responsibilities he had in the world.
My mom is injured and has been for almost two years. She is disabled and cannot work to bring in any income. I have a younger sister who is 15. And myself, who is a college student who can barely afford to attend any classes that I need to build a future for myself.
Our stimulus checks we were supposed to receive months ago were immediately stolen by our father. We never saw a dollar of the nearly collective $7,000 we were supposed to receive. That money would have given us a huge helping hand. Instead; my father took it and gambled it all away. He has forced us to become financially dependent on him as he has purposely put himself in charge of everything. He has been gone for 10 months now and rarely helps us, if at all. The recent 3 1/2 months he has sent a rough total of $300. He then took some of that money back out of my mothers account. My mom now has her own independent bank account so any money we receive will be without my fathers knowledge.
A few days ago our car got repo'd, it has since left us without transportation anywhere. My mom is being forced to miss vital doctors appointments, she cannot pick up her prescriptions either. I was forced to drop my college classes this semester because I no longer have transport to campus and no money for gas even if we did have a car. I had to cancel a past job interview because I could not afford to travel across the city to do the interview. I would also not be able to get there even if hired.
The funds raised with this will immediately go towards finding transportation so I can not only find some work, but so my mother can get to her doctors appointments so she can get the care she needs. Any funds would be appreciated. Covid has taken so much from all of us and will continue to for a long time. Thank you for your patience in reading this.
-Ashton