Hello, I am Isabella Ricciardi-Patton. This fundraiser is to help both my mother, Jennifer Patton, and me financially after my father passed away on October 21st at approximately 4:20 am. He passed in his sleep, so it was painless, thankfully. It is just that this pain is now passed on to us.

We have been struggling financially for the past year, and we had to sell our house due to this; my childhood home. In that process, my father ended up in the hospital in May due to a blood infection in his heart, resulting in open-heart surgery. He ended up with a stroke, so they had to open him back up all within twenty-four hours. While he was in the hospital, I feel as though the company buying the property took advantage of the situation, and we ended up making nothing from the sale.

Before going into the details of this GoFundMe, I want to share what happened to my father and get his story out there. Last year in October, he had been coughing/throwing up blood, so he went to the hospital to get it checked out. He went in, and they found nothing; however, they made the mistake of leaving a catheter in, and because of this, he went around with a tube in his stomach for a year. Yet, this strong man still went to work, and his co-workers, his son, and two other people close to the family left all the hard jobs for him. Even when he was in the hospital prior, they would call him because he taught them everything they knew. As the months went on, he had a gas leak in his truck as well as no AC. He kept coming home and would lie down on our porch, occasionally just passing out. He had to keep fixing his service truck while the others sat around and did not help. There were also limited chairs in the shop, and one co-worker would bring his son to work, who just sat in one of the chairs playing video games. Meanwhile, my father, in pain, could not sit. (This is what he told us. He would come home complaining all the time.) It wasn't until my mom had enough of it and made him stop working. Then, in May of this year, I had to take him to the ER. I didn't know that this would be the last time that I would have any sense of normalcy with him. From then on, things kept escalating. From the open-heart surgery, to the stroke, to throat cancer, to infections, MRSA, his kidney needing to be drained, an infection in his gallbladder, and then finally...life support. He had a DNR, so they took him off of it. He was stable on his own for a few hours and then... that is when he passed in his sleep.

He had throat cancer that the hospital had failed to detect last October. He was unable to get treatment due to how unhealthy his body was. We had such hope that my dad would bounce back; he always did. But as time went on, it became clearer that he wouldn't, not this time. What we, as well as what he wanted, was that if he didn't make any improvements, he would go into hospice care. That never happened. This hospital just kept doing unnecessary procedures until his death. So yes, while he passed peacefully, the moments prior were anything but. That is what makes this harder for my mother and me.

Thank you for reading my dad's story. Now, on to the main reason of this GoFundMe. My mom and I were on the verge of homelessness, and his side of the family refused to help, even going as far as to wishing that we would "enjoy living in a tent." So, in order to make sure that my mother and I had a place to stay, we had to take out usery type loans. To help with the bills, both of us have been selling on Depop, but it isn't enough. My mother is trying to do everything she can, which is why I am creating this GoFundMe.

The money from this GoFundMe would help us pay our rent and any other bills we may have. It would also help contribute to getting groceries.

We both miss my father greatly, and it still does not feel real that he is gone. We both are struggling to come to terms with it. He would always call me his "punkiedoodle" or "punkiedoodlebear." I'll... never get to hear that again. He loved my mother and me a great ton, and I can just hope that he is happy, reunited with his father and our precious dog CoCo Bear, wherever that may be. I miss you, Daddy. Rest in Peace.

Any amount you could donate would be appreciated. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.