As many of you know, my mother took her own life on Thanksgiving night after many years of struggling with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She called me the day before, and I’m so grateful I was able to speak to her one last time. It has been extremely hard to understand why she did it; however, the one silver lining is that she’s no longer living with those demons that convinced her to leave us all. I miss my mom every day, and it’s truly been the most difficult experience of my life. I can’t grasp the fact that I’m 29 and I’ll have to spend the rest of my life without my mama.

Given the timing and circumstances surrounding her passing, we had no time to prepare for this, both mentally and financially. The entirety of funding her services will fall on my older brother and myself.

Given that I’m a contractor in education, I don’t get paid during school breaks, which means I’ll go without pay for 4 weeks from November through January. Adding to the fact it’s the holidays and we have children, it will be a struggle to put her to rest in every way.

My mother passed in Colorado; however, my brother and I live in Nevada and California. Unfortunately, we don’t have the funds to travel out and view her nor have a ceremony, so we’re simply hoping to gather funds to pay for the basics, just having her cremated and having her and her belongings sent to us, and any miscellaneous fees.

(I will cover the additional costs such as the urn or any jewelry I have made for myself, my son, and my grandmother.)

I love my mom so much and want to put her to rest. Any contributions would be so greatly appreciated.

I miss you so much, mama