Help The Perrys Keep Their Home

My name is Robin Perry and back in the spring of 2010, I was living my own American dream.  I was blessed with two beautiful daughters, an adorable grandson, and in little time a granddaughter would be added to the mix.  My husband and I both had fulfilling jobs that met our financial needs and after years of longing for our own home, for the first time in our lives, we were finally homeowners.  We were thrilled to fill our home with our children and grandchildren every chance we got and my oldest daughter and I painstakingly decorated the house and spent the weekends finding curtains and trinkets and comparing color swatches to find the perfect matches.  Two years later, on one of those weekends, my daughter Mindy and her family were spending the weekend with us and our lives changed in a matter of minutes.  
While putting the children to bed on May 5th of 2012, my daughter found herself unable to move or control the entire right side of her body.  Things went from bad to worse when we were told Mindy had suffered a debilitating brain bleed causing a stroke and requiring weeks of residence in a rehab facility.  Despite this unexpected turn of events, we were all thankful that Mindy had survived what is, in many cases, a fatal occurrence and she wholeheartedly put her efforts in to relearning to use the paralyzed parts of her body, while her Father and I cared for her children, day and night in our home.  After the initial rehab, it made most sense for Mindy and her family to move into our home so we could help with the process. 
Initially, we thought she was well on her way to a full recovery, but we started to see Mindy's condition worsen over the short month following the stroke.  On June 28th, the doctors re-evaluated her condition after she had to be rushed to the ER; the new CT and MRI scans revealed that what we were told was a brain bleed induced stroke was actually a golf ball sized brain tumor that resulted in both the bleed and stroke.  When we learned this, Mindy was in a medically induced coma because of complications with her breathing and had to be intubated and placed on a feeding tube for 19 days.  The weeks that followed included a biopsy on the tumor confirming Mindy had stage 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme brain cancer, surgery to remove as much of the tumor as was safely possible and an evaluation at Moffitt Cancer Center that, despite the dismal prognosis we had heard, left us with an encouraging amount of hope.  We were told of an innovative tissue mapping technique developed by their specialists and Mindy was scheduled for a second resection surgery on August 30, 2012.  Less than a week before the surgery our precious Mindy was rushed to the ER again struggling to breathe. We were told that she had a blood clot in her lung resulting from the tumor and they felt they could control it easily.  While I was at our home with her babies, she kissed her dad, they told each other “I love you” and he left the room after taking a last look at her smiling face.  We never saw that face smile again; she never came home. She passed away a few hours later after the doctors tried to sedate her to prepare for complications and her heart stopped. Obviously it was the worst day of our lives.
During those difficult months preceding her death, Mike and I had provided daily care to Mindy’s children.  We would not have wanted it any other way, but this did require that we took a great deal of time off of work and eventually exhausted all leave and paid time off that was due to us.  Although every effort was made to sustain a positive flow of income for our family, while still meeting our responsibilities as parents and grandparents, the financial challenges were overwhelming.  As difficult as it was, we had to return to work after a couple of weeks after Mindy’s death. The devastating sadness and stress continued to take a toll on us. As a result, on November 27, 2012, my husband Mike suffered Sudden Cardiac Arrest right in front of me. He flat lined and was dead for approximately 24 minutes in the ICU at Lakeland Regional Medical Center. Miraculously, after 12 attempts with the defibrillator and various medications to stimulate resuscitation, he was revived.  
Due to prolonged effects from the heart attack, he is no longer able to work in the construction industry and is now on Social Security Disability which has drastically decreased our income. Through these challenges and many others not mentioned here, we managed to keep our mortgage current and paid on time but we were unable to pay the HOA dues in 2013 as a result of the amount of time we missed from work. We have paid both years since but we have not been able to catch up the amount owed for 2013. The HOA has taken out a Foreclosure lien and with interest, attorney’s cost and extra fees added to it we need to raise $1746.00 to stay in our home. We have less than 30 days to come up with this amount and we have no way to get the needed money to save our home. Some people may view their home as just a house but to us, this place is the only thing we have left as a refuge for our memories of the last years with our precious daughter and her children.  Not only do the memories of baby showers, Christmases, birthday parties and family weekends rest in every square foot of our home, but Mindy’s husband had her cremated so because there is no burial plot to visit, we broke ground on a memorial garden in our yard on what would have been her 35th birthday.  Over the past two years, I have nurtured and grown it into a beautiful haven in her honor and every day after work, I sit out at Mindy's garden and reflect on happier times.  
In all our years together, my husband and I have always supported ourselves and our girls; we’ve never been on any kind of assistance or asked for financial help but I find myself in a desperate place I’ve never before been.  One of my daughter’s friends told us about this site and was hopeful that maybe people who know us (and maybe some who don’t) and people who knew and loved Mindy would be willing to help us hold on to the last place our sweet daughter ever laid her head to sleep.  I’m humbly asking you to please help me save my house and the memories contained here; I cannot begin to express the gratitude I have for the kindness of others. 

Thank you for considering us. 

Robin and Mike Perry