Hello out there. My name is Evan, and I'd like to tell you about a special person in my life—my aunt Ellen. It was my idea to start this GoFundMe, and something she and I have much trepidation about, but I’m hoping after you learn a bit about Ellen and her journey, you might be willing to help.

Ellen is my mother's sister, and someone who has been a part of every major life event for me from birthdays to bar mitzvah to live performing arts events to graduations. A multitalented person, Ellen is a skilled teacher (like many in our family), a beautiful singer/songwriter/pianist, and an eye-catching photographer. At many points in my life, I was a beneficiary of these talents, whether it be the gift of a professional photo shoot or the long-term loan of musical and audio equipment. Ellen has always had her way of supporting my growth.

In addition, during very critical and challenging elderly years, Ellen consistently put her own life and career on hold to care for my dear grandparents (her parents). During that time, Ellen and the rest of our family were taken by surprise by something very traumatic. I won't go into details, but our family went through a terrible experience of severe elder abuse against my grandparents, which essentially bankrupted them and had a far-reaching negative impact on our family. Although Ellen's help to my grandparents was unconditional and by choice, it was unfortunate, in my opinion, that Ellen could not be helped or compensated in any way by my grandparents—while they were alive or in the form of inheritance—due to the financial abuse. These are my words, not hers.

After that trying time, we found ourselves in the economic downturn of 2009 and subsequent years. Gainful employment was not abundant for someone later in their career, who had taken time away from productive years to care for elderly parents. For 14 years and through what should have been retirement age, Ellen worked at a Giant Eagle supermarket, enduring long hours on her feet and graveyard shifts for meager pay and benefits, living paycheck to paycheck with no realistic ability to save for the future. Ellen was one of our essential worker heroes through the entire COVID-19 pandemic. In recent years, problems with Ellen's foot led to the need for multiple surgeries and eventually it became impossible to keep the job due to these health challenges.

Unfortunately, the realities of life have come around. While Ellen should be enjoying retirement, she is instead facing the threat of mounting bills, hounding creditors, and housing insecurity. We have worked over the years to reduce expenses as much as possible and pursue any possible social supports. Most importantly, Ellen has been denied supplemental security income and other forms of cash assistance by the State of Ohio.

Ellen is willing to earn income and has pursued many job applications as well as gig work (dog walking, tutoring, etc.). There are some very small prospects, but so far nothing has come through. I’m doing my best to support her search.

But for now, we are simply up against the wall, unfortunately another not-so-rare example of someone with a strong work ethic and moral center but who has not been able to find financial security for a very long time.

I care about Ellen deeply and have done everything I can do personally to help. We are a very small family and there are no wealthy distant relatives to call on. Ellen and I are working together to try to push through the rejections—continuing to search for income opportunities as well as file appeals for the cash assistance programs. But as you can imagine, it will take some time to work through the bureaucracy, and we don’t know what the outcome will be. For now, there are immediate bills due, most importantly the mortgage payment, so we can prevent eviction notices from being the next challenge.

Any amount will help because it will buy Ellen and me some time to continue navigating all necessary paths. The needs are greater than the goal I've set, but I'm hoping the amount here is realistic to be reached by small donations. Thank you all for reading and thanks in advance for your generosity in helping this kind soul.