Help Lynn Reclaim Her Home and Life

Hi! If you don’t know me, I’m Angelina, Lynn’s daughter. If you do, I think I’m finally ready to tell our story.

In 2017, my mother and I had our world flipped upside down when her husband (Gary) of 10 years was caught in a sting operation on Craigslist intending to have sexual relations with a minor.

We were completely blindsided, to say the least.

Kids were mean, people were nosy. It was in the newspaper, online, it was everywhere. I personally felt like it was the end of my life and I would never move on from this. I lost 150 lbs from all of the stress, and so did my mom.

Gary had control of all of my mother’s finances over the 10 years they were married, and she trusted him, as one does their husband.

When the police let us know after they arrested Gary, it was too late. He had been taking out loans for sex workers and sex websites for YEARS in their name. He had maxed out all their credit cards, spent all of their savings, and there was nothing left.

Gary got sentenced to prison for 5 years about 6 months later, and honestly, the worst part of it wasn’t what he did, or how it tore my family apart, or how it completely shattered the only relationship with the only father figure I’ve ever known, it was struggling to keep the lights on because my mom hadn’t worked in 10 years; he didn’t want her to.

He was a pipe fitter in the union and made plenty of money, and my mom wanted to spend as much time with me as she could, so she would clean houses in the mornings while I was at school, and have the nights off with me.

This was solely to get her out of the house and to have her own money; he didn’t want her to work.

My mother, almost immediately after having her world fall apart before her eyes in ways she never would have imagined, got 2 jobs.

I worked 2/3 serving jobs, 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, for probably three and a half years. I immersed myself in my work community; I would stay all day and night.

For the next 5 years, my mom worked her ass off to keep the one thing she had left; her house that her dad bought for her before she met Gary.

When she met Gary, my grandfather wanted Gary to buy the house from him; so he did. This would have never been an issue had Gary not done what he did, but here we are.

Gary was released from prison in March of 2022 (I think?). It was weird. I didn’t know how to talk to this person, nor did I want to. How do you look your father in the face after that?

How can you look someone in the face that took absolutely everything from you?

Now you must be thinking; SHE LEFT HIM

RIGHT?!??

It wasn’t that easy. This man took care of both of us for 15 years. She built a life with this person, she was confused and hurt and vulnerable and completely blindsided; she didn’t know what to do.

Over the 5 years he was in prison, my mom (and my other siblings, not including myself) sent him money and took care of him any way they could while he was incarcerated; he took care of us. It seemed right to them in that time.

When he got out, my mom added him to her insurance plan so he could get knee surgery because he couldn’t get a job when he got out, and because she is who she is, she still felt it was the right thing to do.

Two months after Gary was released from prison, my mom called me from work, and it was the most terrifying day of my life.

My mom was having a heart attack at 47 years old.

She had heart surgery and got 3 stents put in.

I wholeheartedly believe that all of the stress he put her through caused this.

She spent the next several months out of work and deferring bills; there was never any time to save, we were using everything we had to keep this house going, it was all we had left.

If it wasn’t one thing, it was the other. We have lived the last 7 years trying to recover from this financial disaster that someone else left us to sit in, and my mom is tired.

She gets home at night covered in oil and dirt and sits at the kitchen table, can’t move her hands, cries herself to sleep, and wakes up to the water turned off, or the electric, or whatever we waited to pay last.

This woman has helped me buy 2 new cars and has driven a beat-up car for years. She will let me borrow $20 and have nothing to her name. She would give me the shirt off her back. I know wholeheartedly that this woman would do anything for me, and anyone who needed it. I’ve seen it, and I know some of you have too.

About 6 months ago, Gary served my mom divorce papers. She did not obtain a lawyer because she wanted nothing from him. She was going to show up and demand he pay all of the debt he left her with and keep her house. That is all. This man ruined her life, and she still wanted nothing. Nothing but what was hers, and what was owed to her.

We showed up to divorce court, and to our surprise, Gary had put in a request to move the date to the Friday before.

She was not served the notice of the hearing change; it was sent in the mail and must have been lost because we still cannot find it.

They had divorce court without my mom even there, and he got everything.

He got it all. She wasn’t there, she didn’t know, he didn’t call.

This is not fair.

She had to hire a lawyer with money that we did not have, to annul the divorce and go back and essentially redo it.

This is not cheap.

We have 120 days to refinance our house, which my mother cannot do because he has left her with their awful joint credit from using money on websites and SW.

My mother went 50 years without acquiring any debt other than a student loan that was paid off years ago.

This isn’t right, this isn’t fair, and my heart is breaking watching my mother go through this all over again.

We fought like hell for 5 years to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and here we are again. There were blood, sweat, and tears put into those years of surviving the way we did.

We lived a very full life in this house, and we also grieved a life in this house. This is our home. This is the only place I’ve ever lived in my entire life. My mom raised me here. My nephews were raised here.

This house is so much more than that to me.

I distinctly remember, a few months after Gary had gone to prison, I couldn’t get out of bed for probably a week. I didn’t drink, or eat, or respond to texts, or look at anyone for a week.

Girls were mean, and my stepdad was a predator. I was tormented for the last 2 months of high school before I graduated. People made my life hell. I didn’t want to even walk across that stage and be on display for all of those people.

My mom came into my room. I had taped blankets on the windows, so that it was pitch black. She laid in my bed with me and sobbed and just said, “Baby, you have to get up. You can’t let him or them win.”

And I did, I got up, and I was brave, and I fought like hell; not for her, but with her.

It was us against the world. It still is.

My mother is my hero. She is the strongest, most resilient human being I’ve ever known. And she needs help, but she would never be the one to ask.

I am trying to raise $80,000 to buy our house outright from the bank and pay off her divorce lawyer.

If you know us, you know our egos are big and this hurts to even do; but I know my mom, and I know she would do it for anyone.

That was choppy, vulnerable, confusing, and long.

Which is to a T what being in our heads for the last 7 years has been like. It’s thing after thing. We need your help. My mom needs your help.

Even if I raise $1, I am so grateful for the friends and family I have had to get us through this. You all know who you are.

We love you, and if you can only offer your support, that is more than enough

If you read this far, thank you.