Stand By Mike: Overcoming Tragedy & Pain

Hello all, thank you for looking. 

My name is Mike. On April 13th 2025, my fiancé and best friend Mandy committed suicide. We had been together and were nearly inseparable for 8 beautiful years. We were each other’s best friend. She had been dealing with extreme depression and anxiety for a long time, and she just lost the battle.

I was devastated at her passing, to say the least, and although it gets a little bit easier as the days progress, it’s still very hard to keep going and persevere, and I still have those days where I wonder if I even want to keep trying. It has been really tough without her, as she was my best friend, my partner, the love of my life, the only family I have left on this planet. 

She was also a big part of our household finances, and without her, not only is it hard to even afford groceries to eat, I’m also in grave danger of losing my home. I’m looking at inevitable homelessness, which just adds to my stress, anxiety and depression, giving me more reasons to debate giving up…

On top of that tragic situation, to add actual physical pain to my emotional and mental pain, I also suffer from a rare, really severe, very painful recurring skin condition called Pyoderma Gangrenosum. I’ve been fighting this for 5 years now. This condition requires multiple dermatologist visits, medications, bandages, etc. Mandy was my nurse through all of the years fighting it, helping me change the bandages and giving me status updates about how the ones that I can’t see are looking, etc. I get them on my back a lot, and those ones are very hard (impossible) to bandage without a helping hand.

Any help I receive through this fundraiser will go towards food, medications / bandaging supplies for my wounds, and hopefully an apartment or a room to rent somewhere so I can stay off the streets and continue to work.

Thank you so much for reading all of that, and considering helping me.

Love, above all things.

Mike