Hello, my name is Marcus Oliger. I am a disabled veteran living in Arkansas. I served in the Army for about 15 years before I was medically discharged due to injuries. As such, I cannot work, but I take care of my children and the home. My wife works as a Certified Medication Aide at a nursing home and is slated to start LPN school in June of this year. Together we have 4 children that live with us. We were lucky enough to get approved to purchase our home in October of 2021 for a great price in a great town with great schools and wonderful programs both academically and athletically for our children to have a chance at a great future.

In December 2025, I underwent cervical fusion surgery (ACDF) for my C3 through my C7 vertebrae due to injuries that occurred during my last deployment. I started having my left arm go numb when I would be driving. This began getting worse, as my arm would go numb even when I had my arm down, then when I would lay down, and then finally spread to cause my right arm to go numb as well. I had tried all other options to remedy this, from epidural injections to physical therapy. Nothing seemed to work, so I met with a neurosurgeon who told me that I was suffering from spinal stenosis. Essentially, my spinal cord was pinching off on one side of my spine, which affected the nerves and use of my arms. I was told I was a candidate for cervical fusion surgery. Instead of doing one vertebra at a time, which would cause all sorts of risks and prolonged relief, the surgeon would rather do it all at once. I agreed, and we set the date for the surgery to be on December 5, 2025. Because of that surgery, my wife had to take a leave of absence from work in order to care for me. This took our overall income and slashed it by half. In order to try and make ends meet, we placed our mortgage under forbearance from October through January. During that time, I had applied for Aid and Attendance through the VA since I am going to need to be cared for until April 2026 when I can remove the neck collar and begin the next phase of recovery. Sadly, I was denied the Aid and Attendance claim, which is a devastating blow to us financially. It is now January, and the forbearance will end at the end of this month, leaving us to owe roughly $6500.00 on our mortgage or face foreclosure. I have exhausted all searches and options for loans or refinancing our home with no success.

I have never been one to ask for help in matters like these, and frankly feel embarrassed to have to set this GoFundMe up at all. But the fear of my family and children losing their home is enough to set my pride aside and ask for help. I have seen miracles happen through this service and always thought that those happened to better people than I. I've never had much luck in life for things like this, but any help that can be given would definitely be appreciated and well used. Thank you to anyone who has read this far and has chosen to help, I sincerely hope nothing but goodness follows you for the rest of your days.