Help Save Home, Survive New Physical Issues, Buy Cat Meds

My name is Jeff Wignall and I am turning to GoFundMe for three reasons: to save my family home of 70 years (taxes, heat, etc.), to help pay monthly bills and for very expensive medications (insulin--$130/bottle) and food for my aging diabetic cat.

I have been searching daily for a part-time job so that I didn't have to turn to Go Fund Me, but it has not been easy. I have some physical issues (arthritis in my knees and other issues) that prevent me from standing for long periods, so I have been primarily looking for a work-from-home type position, or a sit-down job at a business.

I am a great writer, have a pleasant phone personality and voice and I'm very organized--all qualities I hope will eventually land me a fun job.

Here is a bit of my life story:

I am a writer and photographer (see my work at jeffwignall.com) and I am the author of more than 40 how-to books on photography, including: The Joy of Digital Photography (one of the bestselling photo books ever), The New Joy of Digital Photography, Exposure Photo Workshop, Winning Digital Photo Contests and the Photographer’s Master Guide to Color. Please, search my name on goodreads.com and you will see a long list of my books with some very positive and kind reviews.

I have also written for virtually every major photography magazine in the world, including Photo District News (I was the Technical Editor for 10 years), Popular Photography, Modern Photography and Petersen’s Photographic. I was also the “Camera” columnist for the Sunday New York Times for many years. In addition, I was a well-known rock and roll photographer for four decades--I have photographed everyone from the Rolling Stones, to Rod Stewart to Johnny Cash.

In years past, I earned a good living by writing about photography and shooting my own photo assignments, but in the last four years I have fallen on extremely hard times. I have gotten to the point where the phone simply never rings anymore and my income has stopped. It has been kind of terrifying. I live off of a tiny social security check and SNAP benefits (food stamps). I can no longer the upkeep necessary to hold onto my family home.

Life has gone from fun and creative to pure survival mode.

It has been a humbling, depressing and exasperating time, but I refuse to give up hope. In addition to finding a job, I plan to rebuild my writing business through self publishing ebooks. I am nearly done with my first mystery novel--my first venture into fiction writing. Unlike the books I wrote for major publishers for which I was given a tiny royalty, I will own all of the rights to my own ebooks and all of the profits. Most folks don’t know this, but the authors of books published by major publishers are only given a relatively minuscule royalty that is based on the wholesale price of the books. Typically I was paid less than $1 per book—even for books that topped bestseller lists and sold for $30 or more.

Where did my writing business go? The crumble began during the covid years. Many of the smaller publishers and even a few major publishers that I did business with simply vanished. Each day was a nightmare of getting calls from publishers saying, “We have decided to close up shop, we’re sorry, but there is no more work for you.” It was a scary and fast decline. Most of these publishers were based in Manhattan and during covid, Manhattan was a ghost town. Publishing doors slammed shut. Who could blame them?

Something else happened during those years that made things even worse: cellphone cameras (and trust me, I love mine) simply replaced real cameras. Because cellphones are so simple to use, the users don’t need to buy or read books that explain the use of more complex cameras. Publishers had no use for photo books.

Fortunately, I had a small amount of savings that I was able to tough things out and survive and keep my beloved cats fed. Sadly, one of my two cats, Mama Kitty, passed on from kidney failure during this time and I miss her dearly. I’m single and my cats are my world and my family and to lose one of them, well, I was crushed.

Sadly, my one remaining cat, Boo Boo, developed diabetes at the same time that my business was collapsing and I have to buy her insulin and syringes at the cost of about $130 every six seeks—and, of course, I have to feed her and buy her litter. Both cat food and litter have soared in price. If you are a cat owner, you know how outrageously expensive cat food and litter have become. I used to pay about fifty cents for a can of food, now it is over $1+/can and litter? How about $12/bottle?

I am here on Go Fund Me out of last-ditch desperation. I need your help. I am dangerously close to losing my family home that my family has owned for more than 70 years and it needs a lot of upkeep. Also, where I live in Connecticut, you either find a way to buy oil or you are not going to survive. I sold everything I had this past winter to buy oil—most of my cameras, my book collection, my music collection, all gone.

I have a complex mix of emotions—humiliation, fear, sorrow and frustration—at having to turn to friends and strangers to help fund my life, but as I said, I have tried desperately to find a job. I am willing to do anything for minimum wage. Sadly, job hunting has been the most frustrating experience of my life. I have applied for dozens of jobs with no luck. One major retailer told me they get “thousands” of job applications for every job advertised.

So there it is. At this moment I literally cannot pay the monthly bills. I am trying to keep the lights (and soon heat) on and keep my precious Boo Boo cat fed and medicated, but it is tough slogging. If you can help, you will be in my prayers of thanks every moment of my life. And I will pay your kindness forward.

Thank you for your time and your kindness. I appreciate both more than I can say. Even a very small donation is received in utter gratitude. Stay healthy, be safe.

Jeff Wignall

www.jeffwignall.com