Help Carolina Compensate Her Roommate's Car Loss

On Sunday, November 17th, I was heading to an SCA heavy weapons fighter practice (SCA.org) in the slow lane on I-4 when a car cut me off, narrowly missing me. The black Mercedes sedan then slammed on their brakes when they realized there wasn’t enough room between them and the eighteen-wheeler that had just merged into traffic from an on-ramp, one that they had clearly not seen. After cutting me off and narrowly missing me, the at-fault driver immediately saw that the semi had hit their brakes and slammed on THEIR brakes, causing me to crash into them. The front end of the car I was driving was crushed. The crash bruised my hands and right leg, and my airbags deployed, but one of them started burning and the car filled with smoke. I was able to roll the car to the side of the road and exit the vehicle, which I thought was on fire. The at-fault driver of the black Mercedes sedan stopped a ways down the road long enough to watch me walk away from my vehicle and then promptly left the scene of the accident. I was unable to get any information on the at-fault driver as when they stopped, they were too far away for me to see their license plate, and when they saw me walking towards them, they left the scene. The worst part of all of this is that the vehicle I was driving doesn’t even belong to me; it belongs to my roommate who had allowed me to use it out of the kindness of his heart. Why was I using his car?

Earlier that week, on Tuesday, November 12th, I was driving my car to a physical therapy appointment (I am recovering from an ACL replacement) at 6:30 in the morning when a driver ran a stop sign and t-boned me, causing damage to my driver’s side passenger door, the driver’s side back panel, and the driver’s side rear tire. The accident caused my rear driver’s side tire to angle inward, so the tire is now touching the spring. My car is not drivable, and the at-fault driver’s insurance company is reluctant to pay for the repair of my tire, so I have no vehicle while we discuss why their at-fault client will pay for my tire repair, lol. I was therefore, unfortunately, driving my roommate’s car on the 17th.

Because the Mercedes left and neither my roommate nor I have collision insurance, the financial responsibility for my roommate’s vehicle is mine. I therefore need enough funds to compensate my roommate for the loss of his vehicle. If my own car is declared a total loss, I’m going to need to replace my own vehicle, and I can’t afford to pay for one car, least of all two. Why, you ask, can I not afford to compensate my roommate for the loss of their vehicle? Good question.

Two years ago, following my recovery from thyroid cancer and subsequent return to work, I realized that I had to make some changes. I was working in the Behavioral Health non-profit corporate sector as a psychotherapist, working five 10–12 hour days in a row Monday through Friday with after-hours on call for seven days, every third week. At the time, I had worked this grueling schedule in the non-profit mental health sector for the vast majority of my 22 years in the field. After battling cancer through the pandemic and having to go through treatment and recovery alone, I just couldn’t maintain the schedule anymore. A schedule with ever-increasing clients and an ever-increasing list of additional responsibilities, all meant to “justify your salary” since having a full caseload of clients you are providing therapy to was apparently not considered justification enough. I physically couldn’t do it anymore. I absolutely love my job; I love being a clinical psychotherapist and helping people. What I couldn’t do anymore is work a job that had gotten MORE exploitive, was extremely stressful, and left no room for a life. Additionally, the average rent in Orlando went up to $2000/month, and my children, natural fraternal twin boys, had just graduated high school and were starting college. So I took every cent I had and I left Orlando, moved to a small town near Lakeland, Florida, to live in community with three other adults, and I started my own private practice. I also used a significant portion of my savings helping one of my sons with housing after he arrived for his first semester of college only to discover he did not have the on-campus housing he was supposed to get. Between moving, setting up my new business, and helping my son with his housing, I have no savings left. Non-profit mental health doesn’t pay very much to begin with (a truth I accepted a long time ago, lol), so I am down to zero. My business is too new (two years old at this point) and not yet generating a profit. Therefore, I am embarrassed to say that after 24 years as a psychotherapist and highly educated professional, I have no savings, no retirement, and no funds with which to compensate my roommate, who is understandably very upset. Two divorces, being the only salary for a family of four, multiple major health issues, and struggling to live in the best neighborhood I could for my children’s public education, I didn’t have a lot of savings to begin with. When I left Orlando, I was burned out. My cancer journey gave me a new perspective on life and on what is actually important. I therefore found a way to work through what would be my retirement, which allowed me to switch to what is a significantly less stressful job—private practice. I sold everything I could, emptied my 401K, left Orlando, moved in with three other adults, and have been working for myself ever since. The cost of this low-stress job is that I have no savings and I will never retire. That being said, at least I’m now able to enjoy life and focus on the part of my job that is truly the most important, being there for my clients and giving them my 100% every day, while actually having enough time to devote to my family, my friends, and the hobby that I love, heavy weapons fighting in the SCA.

To be clear, all of the funds collected by this account will go directly to my roommate (whose name I am omitting as I am sure he won’t like the publicity) to compensate him for the loss of his vehicle. His car, a 2010 Chevrolet HHR, had a Kelly Blue Book value of about $2,500. This is therefore my goal. Anything that you are able to give will help, as something is better than nothing. If you’re still reading, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for at least taking the time to read my story.

Yours in service,

Carolina