Meredith Brown and Kids

Hi my name is Erin, and my friend Meredith Brown and her children have been through an unimaginable ordeal these last few years. I would love to be able to get them the financial help they need. Here is her story:

“​​For those who don’t know, my ex-husband abandoned our family and went on the run from the FBI for running a Ponzi scheme 3 years ago now. This led to a domino effect where my children and I were left with very little - but since then I’ve been rebuilding my life, working hard in school, setting career goals, and having an amazing community support me in multiple different ways.

I was the primary caretaker for my children for over 15 years, so I was not equipped to provide a head of household income for a family of four, and as you can imagine expenses have piled up as we’ve had to rebuild our life from scratch.

This year we’ve also faced legal battles that have led to an increase in all of our trauma–and the need for medical assistance to deal with PTSD, panic attacks, and nightmares.

I have put off writing this at least 2 months now because other victims lost so much, and so I feel like it’s not my place to ask for help. But, I desperately need help.

Three years after the fact, I wish I had it all together. Me and the kids have done so much and worked so hard, and taken hits and gotten back up again. But, I can say that the last 6 months have been some of the hardest we have been through as a family.

I’m not sure if that is how the grief and trauma work, but we are just absolutely exhausted from the last 5 years. It has caught up with us and taken a toll. Philip went to start his freshman year, and is now home again because of life events that have taken all hope from him.

Gavin, Philip, and myself have been recommended to continue trauma counseling, but it is not financially viable for us right now. We are very thankful that a donor has paid for Arabella’s counseling for a few years. And my church supported my counseling for over 2 years.

I continue to use government assistance for groceries and health insurance—but we have yet to find counselors that accept our insurance. I am deeply struggling to keep our heads above water.

I am also continuing to pursue my career, but I have come up against a lot of trauma as I have pursued a career–I did not realize that my marriage was so abusive in my attempts to have a vocation–and the harder I work towards a career, the more the trauma comes up around this.

Emotionally and physically I am exhausted. I feel quite foggy most days right now, panic attacks have started back, and I am going through a new, deeper wave of feeling the effects of my trauma and my children’s trauma.

As well, I have also completed my Bootcamp in UX/UI content strategy and design. While I continue to work on my portfolio (still needs some updates), I would greatly appreciate any leads or networking connections you might have for me. I hope that 2024 is the year of my career to be able to provide a head of household income for a family of four.”