Stand by Dawn in Her Time of Need

Asking for help can be difficult sometimes... However, that is what I am about to do here. I'm not asking for help for myself, but for a very important person in my life. Her name is Dawn, but I've called her my bonus mom since I was in middle school. She has always had the kindest heart and I hate what she is having to deal with right now.

She has seen many hardships in her life, however she never lets life keep her down. Even those "impossible to deal with" things that get thrown at her, she always manages to overcome with a smile on her face. Her resilience is one of the reasons I look up to her; I have seen her overcome some very hard things, and despite all the hardships, she is still the kindest person ever.

But the hardship that she is currently dealing with, might be the hardest one for her yet. About 1 1/2 years ago, she lost her husband of 20+ years in an unnecessary motorcycle accident. 22 years of partnership, and love; living together, seeing each other every day. Hundreds of thousands of "I love you"s between them. Then one day a quick trip to the store, mixed with a drunk and impatient driver making an illegal pass, and all of that was over...

You'd think losing her husband would be the worst thing ever, and you're partially correct. She would never get to see him, or hear him say "I love you" ever again. But now, she's losing even more...

See, over the 22 years of their lives that they shared they never had an "official" wedding ceremony. It was something that had been discussed a few times, but I think that they never thought they would run out of time to do it. They always considered each other as married by common law, but in 2020 they did get matching wedding band tattoos on their fingers together in Las Vegas.

Side note, EVERYTHING was in her husbands name: the cars, bank accounts, the house. Since they considered themselves common law married but were not married on paper, this caused a lot of extra stress after he passed. Because of this, the courts have now ruled that she has to walk away with NOTHING! The judge ruled that his daughter has the rights to everything. And now Dawn is being forced to leave the home that her and her husband fixed up together.

She doesn't know where she's going to end up as of right now, but knows that the daughter wants her out of the house by the 1st of June. She tried to talk to her attorney about an appeal, but he won't help her unless she has a $10,000 retainer fee. She does have a job, but has been living paycheck to paycheck since her husband died.

She has said she is ready to give up, and I have never seen her be so defeated by life; it hurts to watch. I really wish that there was anyway I could help, but I'm not in a position to be able to; so that's why I'm reaching out this way. Aside from the retainer fee, she is also going to need funds for first and last months rent/deposit on a new place. At this point anything will help! Thank you for taking the time to read this, and for helping out if you're able to!

-- Holly