I’m not very good at asking for help, but I really need it now. My name is Debbie, I’m 68, widow of an Army Veteran.  He served during Vietnam, exposed to Agent Orange for a year. The VA has helped me and also my church family, yet what I need is very expensive.

I live in an old schoolhouse, built in 1885, and it has a dirt crawl space. The past few years, I have been getting sicker and sicker (leading to hospital stays) every fall/winter. This past year, I was in the hospital or assisted living through most of November 2024 - March 2025. The cause of my illness was not found until the past couple of months.

I have COPD & MS, so the consensus was one of those being the cause. However, we now know that the entire house has a very serious mold problem that is making me sick whenever I’m in here. I don’t even go in my bedroom anymore since that part of the house has the worst mold problem.

Senior Service helped me get estimates for mold remediation, and it’s going to be between $10,000 and $15,000. The person that was helping me has left Senior Services, so I’m starting over on the grants and building assistance programs.  The issue is that I can’t stay in here much longer; I’m starting to get very sick again.