This is Trisha.

She is a magical, miraculous, magnificent single mom to a beautiful autistic boy named Rob. I know her from the OG Flickr days, since 2006. I've met her twice. I love her very much.

Rob's father, Chris, just died suddenly.

Chris was Trisha's support financially and also her best friend for the past many years.

In her words:

"Chris was the one person I told everything. He knew everything about me. We were family. He was my family. We talked all of the time, nearly every day. We would spend a lot of time together when he was here picking Rob up or dropping him off. Those two had a thing they did where Rob would take photos of his drawings with Chris's phone, they would add captions, then text them all to my phone. Rob has thousands of drawings, so there were times it was hours.

We had an easy relationship. I never worried how I looked or what i said. I was always 100% comfortable with Chris. When we first separated, we made a conscious choice to always be on good terms. Sure, we would fight, but we always talked it out and came out better for it.

I feel so lost. he was the one I told everything. He was Rob's dad. He was my best friend.

I know he knew how much I love him, how much I valued our friendship. Our friendship that weathered divorce and 23 years. I can't believe he is gone. I love you, Chris Gauthier. Thank you for absolutely everything."

Trisha isn't sure what, if any support she might receive from Chris' life insurance, as much of that will likely cover cremation and funeral expenses. She doesn't know for sure if the last child support payment was her last payment. She doesn't know where next month's rent or food expenses are going to come from.

Can you imagine grieving the loss of your child's father, of your best friend, while also being terrified of how you are going to manage day-to-day living?

Please donate what you are able so we can give Trisha and Rob some peace of mind and some breathing room while she figures out what's next.

Thank you so much.

Sarah