Help a Struggling Mom in Need

There are a million things racing through my mind right now, and I hate that I even have to do this, but I have to think of my kids and their needs.

The past almost two years have been an absolute struggle. I’ve been hit with obstacle after obstacle, and life in general has been an uphill battle. Life for everyone has been chaos, and I feel it in my core. I’ve been trying to man this ship, and unfortunately, the water is extremely choppy, and I am sinking fast. I’ve been through hell and back in this life, and I always, always pick myself up and carry on in ways I never knew possible. If you know me, you know I’m a hard worker. I raised my daughter solely on my own, without consistent child support or help. I have a great job, which I’ve been at for 11 years, and I’ve always been an overtime employee and picked up as many hours as I possibly could. But it wasn’t always easy.

I struggled for years with alcohol after delivering my son stillborn at 38 weeks in 2013. That alone rocked my world, and I was in a fog for about 9 years, just drinking until I couldn’t feel anymore. It ruined friendships, my relationships with my family, and I was a terrible employee. I finally had enough, and I’ve been sober now for a couple of years, and I am so, so proud of that. I thought after putting the bottle down, life was supposed to get easier, and it’s proven to be anything but that. Learning to cope with life’s curveballs and doing it sober has been interesting, to say the least.

I’ve been through a multitude of hardships as of recent, and I’m starting this as a last-ditch effort to save my home and everything I’ve worked so hard for so my kids can have a safe place to call home and we’re all together. I’ve said it a million times that we’re all just a paycheck away from homelessness, and it couldn’t be any more accurate. I have been dealing with an injury to my ankle now for quite some time, but during the winter, on January 22, 2025, I was working and slipped on ice, rolling my ankle outward and in turn making the already existing problem even worse. I was diagnosed with posterior tibial tendinopathy, which requires surgery to be fixed and if left untreated could cause bone deformity and long term disability. The cause of this is basically “overuse” and slipping made it that much worse.

My job as a letter carrier requires me to do a lot of walking, lifting, and carrying a heavy satchel on my side all day, and due to this slip incident, I was unable to work. I was denied workers' comp and have been awaiting my appeal date. In the meantime, I used up all of my sick leave and vacation leave to ensure I’d still have a pay. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, I didn’t get a full check due to errors from whoever is responsible for entering the payroll, so I went a good almost 2 months with no pay. I’ve used all of the sick leave and vacation leave I had and had no choice but to return to work. I’m on limited duty, but I still have trouble performing my job, and until I have my appeal to prove the relation of my injury to my job, I have to just push through. At the end of 2024, my credit union put a stop pay on my automatic car payment, causing it to fall behind, and I hadn’t realized it because I would see it pending in the account and never noticed a couple of days later my payment was getting kicked back. I got a letter from the finance company and immediately put a payment arrangement in place and spoke with my credit union, who was absolutely clueless as to “how” that happened and promised to lift the stop payment on the account since I never signed off on it. That did not happen, though. Finally, the car got repossessed, and there wasn’t a thing I could do. It tanked my credit, and it was just purchased months prior to it being taken. The credit union refused to give me a loan for it in order to get it out of repossession, go figure. So I had no other choice but to file for bankruptcy. I got the car back, but now I’m in grave danger of losing everything due to being in bankruptcy. I even picked up another job as a driver for a limo company to make extra money, but due to my injury, I can’t work for them until I get things situated with my full-time job.

This is what brings me here today. Since I’ve not been able to work to my full capacity, I’ve severely fallen behind. Mortgage payments, car payments, there are days I don’t even eat. I’ve exhausted all of my options, and my lawyer notified me that they have filed to repossess my car again. If that happens, everything else will follow, considering I’m in bankruptcy, I don’t have room for error.

My son is 5, he has had glasses since just 10mos old, his vision is extremely poor and requires him to see an ophthalmology specialist located in Providence, RI. Without a vehicle, I’m unable to get my son to his appointments, or my daughter to Dighton to her high school. She takes a bus there, but she misses it more often than I’d like… and the list goes on.  My son has needed new glasses for a new prescription , and I haven’t had the funds to get them for him, and in turn he’s suffering and I just feel like I’ve failed at being a parent. I am not asking for the world; I am just trying to get back on my feet and not have to worry about where my kids will sleep at night and how we’re going to get by and where we’d go if I lose this house. It’s not easy for me to ask for help; I’m extremely embarrassed, and it has taken everything in me to even go this route, but I can’t let my kids down, and I have to say I at least tried.

Any money donated will go straight to making my car payments up to date, and toward all of my bills that have fallen behind due to these last few awful months. I will post all payment confirmation and any other proof of payment and where everything ends up being distributed to. Full transparency and nothing to hide I am just trying to get a steady ground. 

I thank anyone who has read this far and wholeheartedly appreciate anyone who finds it in them to help us during these uncertain times. I have always tried to help when I can and would give the shirt off my back for anyone, trying to put good karma into the universe. This time, I need the help, and I posted my medical reports and such for anyone who may question the validity of all of this. I can and will provide any and all answers to any questions one may have.

Thank you, love you all