"Help Me Keep The Home I Grew Up In From Foreclosure For Me and My Four Senior Dogs”

Hello. I have always considered myself an “I don’t need anyone’s help, I will figure it out myself” kind of person I never imagined I would be in the position of needing to ask for help but, here I am. My name is Lisa and I am a senior “dog Mom” with four senior dogs: Daisy, Tater, Jeanne and Jerry. I live in a suburb of Dallas, TX in the house where I grew up. Other than living down the road in an apartment for a couple of years, this has always been my home.

I remember when every tree and flower were planted in the yard. I remember every exterior paint color it has been: white, light blue, yellow, white then sage green. I remember my Daddy hand laying the hardwood floors in 1968, the summer before he died. I was five years old.

I had an older brother and two sisters who were married and out of the house, starting their lives when Daddy died. My Mom had to raise me and my other brother. She struggled but she made ends meet and we were ok. Granted I took mayonnaise sandwiches for my school lunch too many times to count and we were hungry some days, but Mom kept us going. She instilled the values of kindness, hard work, integrity and honesty in us. I am proud to carry those values to this day.

Before Mom passed away in 1995 the mortgage on this house had been paid off for several years. When I moved back into it I began to work on it. There were a lot of things needing repair. I decided to take out a loan against the equity so I could tackle the bigger repairs. I had it reroofed, upgraded the electric and plumbing, replaced windows and rotten subflooring and I just worked on getting it into better condition.

In 2005 everything changed when my older sister, Linda, was diagnosed with cancer. She needed a lot of help with just getting back and forth to her chemo treatments (a 75 mile round trip in her very old and worn out car). I gave her the remaining equity loan money so she would not have to worry about anything. She was able to get a “new” used car and keep food on their table. She passed in 2007.

I have worked hard my entire life. In August 2021 I lost my dream job of 16 years due to a reorganization. I worked in the facilities department at the local community college district. I was devastated. It was the best job of my life and my plan was to retire from there. I was 58 when this happened. I did receive severance pay for a few months but after it ran out, with the mortgage payment and monthly bills and no foreseeable job offer in sight, I ended up cashing out my retirement so I could keep this house.

As an older woman of the workforce, it took 3 years and 5 months to find another fulltime job. Interview after interview always ending with “thanks but we have chosen someone else”. Finally in December 2023 I found a fulltime job. It was not a job like my beloved previous job but, it was not too far from home and it paid the bills.

Recently I was let go. There has been no severance offered and I had no retirement funds to fall back on this time. Drawing on my last experience of being an unemployed senior, I wonder on this go round if there are any companies out there who will hire a 63 year old woman. My fingers and toes are crossed that there are and that my search will not take as long as the last time.

I am struggling to put food on my table and in the dog bowls. I am playing catch up on the mortgage and other bills. I am facing foreclosure on this little house that I have loved my entire life. I don’t want to be homeless. I have nowhere to go. There are no kids to help me, there is no “blood” family to ask for help.

I never expected to be here, but here I am. My four, old doggos and I humbly asking kind strangers to help us stay in our beloved home.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Lisa, Daisy, Tater, Jeanne and Jerry