Dear friends, family and good-hearted neighbors,

I am your neighbor, a single mamma living with Sjögren’s Disease and suffering from recurring bouts of Epstein-Barr reactivation post-COVID. For years I had been successfully coping with Sjögren’s Disease, an autoimmune disease which causes chronic pain, profound exhaustion and other internal difficulties including multiple systems organ damage. I owned and operated a house cleaning business for four years while moonlighting at a tea bar. I loved being able to clean folk’s homes like I would want mine cleaned and providing no-alcoholic, nutrient rich teas to my community. But because of Sjögren’s and EBV, I’ve had to close my cleaning business and quit my second job. I applied for disability but, needing to keep myself and my daughter housed, I took a loan after more than eight months of enduring poverty and insecurity during the application process. I was denied because I had too much money in the bank for about a day before paying rent.

I have included my backstory below but I thought I might spare anyone who is not led to read it the trouble and list my immediate need:

I am in need of:

Medical care not covered by insurance

A clean, drivable RV for stable housing

Career counseling for jobs I can work with a disability.

Sundry expenses: veterinary care for my cat, toiletries, etc

The cost for a used, refurbished RV that is free of mold and chemicals runs $15-20,000. Please give generously so that I can have shelter that affords plenty of sunlight (vital for autoimmune sufferers in the PNW). If you are not in a position to give at the moment, please feel encouraged and free to share my GofundMe broadly and often on your social media. I am sensitive to the fact that many are giving to others in desperate situations in this difficult world. If you choose to give to me, thank you from the depths of my Spirit

My backstory:

As a single mom, I was able to provide a two bedroom living space for my daughter and I through my tireless work at my house cleaning business. By scheduling work for the 3.5 days while she was at her father’s, I could be with my daughter the entire time she was with me. This included whole weekends+ two school days four or the first four years of her life. From birth until 3 years I was with her 20/7. I had to fight tooth and nail to argue her dad down to taking one day with her so I could rest the part of one day she wasn’t nursing. Full time mothering without her father’s parenting support made it impossible for me to have a job while he and I were together. He was financially abusive and psychologically manipulative while were were married. I believed him when he said he would have to sell our house to pay child support. I would not remove that stability of the home my daughter was born in from her so I did not receive child support or transitional support (alimony). My daughter’s father has never paid child or transitional support since we separated and divorced. It’s not appropriate or safe to give more details but I am so thankful that my therapist helped me recognize how controlled I was and gave me the information I and help I needed to leave. When we separated, I had only enough to rent a room for us to share and took jobs unworthy of my skills out of the immediacy of need to leave the abusive situation. It has been four years since we divorced but I have not yet been able to dig out of the desperate financial situation precipitated by my poor choice of partner and autoimmune condition.