Hi everybody, my name is Melissa. Sadly, about 4 months ago my neighbor came over and tried to harm me and my son because of his racist beliefs and my 2 boys are black. Thank God I was able to get my 7-year-old in the house and my 21-year-old wasn't home from work yet. I did not let this person get into our back yard. Unfortunately, I took 2 shots from an AR style gun (it was big), thankfully that's all that hit me, found out later he shot a lot. I was on a ventilator for 9 days. The bullet hit my hand and my chest/stomach area. It's a miracle I'm alive.

My niece had set up a GoFundMe and she raised some money to help towards my expenses.

Well, here we are, I am healing well, going through multiple hand surgeries to repair my thumb. The chest wound had blown out some ribs in front and back, ripped my colon in half, lost part of that. Hit a couple of other organs which just needed to have minor repairs. But, I can honestly say it's the worst pain I've ever experienced. Upon waking I had also lost feeling in 3 fingers on my left hand and my right hand was useless and bandaged. So I couldn't even feed myself, needed help for everything. I have exhausted ALL funds on medical expenses, prescriptions, and having to hire someone to come in and help when my family couldn't. I apparently live one and a half blocks too far from the cut-off for my township to help. My bills are piling up, water was shut off. I am unable to work. Which I've worked since I was 13. I am a single mom, and take care of, well used to take care of my home 100% on my own. Now, I just can sit back and watch the disaster unfold which is now my new life. I am completely broke, and next on shut off list is electric and gas. I am still in shock this even happened. Makes me so sad that someone had so much hate in their heart they chose to try to harm us due to skin color! My boys are amazing. Super smart and polite! And my whole world, which is now turned upside down, and all I did was come home from work. I had 1 cat and 2 kittens pass away within the first few weeks, and a dog that stopped eating that is still having huge issues from not eating while I was hospitalized. Since this horrific incident, I went for 3 months without my kids here, and we have never been apart. I am grateful for my family, they were very well cared for! Now school is back I barely scraped up enough for supplies and clothes. Because of course he grew and nothing fit him. I'm usually a very cheerful, happy person, that helps anyone at anytime. I've become so sad by this whole event and physically the stress is taking its toll. I'm trying anything I can in attempts to keep my utilities on, pay rent, and stay positive. This is my last attempt in basically begging for help. I will lose my kids if I can't keep our basic necessities going. Please, anything will help. I'm trying to see how to add more pics to show my recovery process. Thank you for your time in reading my story! And sincere thank you to everyone who has helped in the past and hopefully the future.