Before we get into the reason how I ended up on a crowdfunding campaign, let me give you a little background. 

When my son was in elementary school he made me a Mother’s Day card once that said, “happy Mother’s Day mama I love you very much! On your next day off, can we do something together?” I’m sure he had no intentions of making me cry when he made it, but it definitely touched me in a way I wasn’t ready for.

I had single parent raised my son on and off until he was 12. It was one failed relationship after another, starting when I was just pregnant with him up, until he entered middle school. I worked A LOT, and even on my days off I worked side jobs doing hair. We didn’t get a lot of quality time together, and I didn’t realize he needed it that bad until he handed me that card.

He’s 20 years old now and I work for myself, allowing more flexibility with my job. His 3rd year of college at UCSD had been rough and I wanted to take him out of the chaos and stress of school so I planned a day trip out to Joshua tree. We drove almost 3 hours and chatted, laughed, and bonded. About 20 minutes after arriving I wanted to show him a really cool rock formation I saw when I was on a solo trip there. We had to climb over a few rocks, and hop down off one. Unfortunately even being just 2 feet off the ground when I landed and heard a pop in my knee. It hurt A LOT, but I didn’t want that to put a damper on my quality time that I felt like I waited over a decade to spend with my son. I stabilized my knee using the bandanna in my hair and powered through the pain to continue our adventure. He found me a stick that I used as a bit of a crutch and after three hours of him helping me hobble around the desert trying to show him fun stuff I collapsed a second time. We decided it was time to head to the emergency room. A few ER visits later, an MRI would show that I have a complete ACL tear, along with two tears in my meniscus. If you know anything about knee injuries, you know that this is not a good one, especially for a runner. I’ve been using running as therapy for the last decade, and having just gotten out of a bad place in my life, I got back into running and feeling really good about myself. The last time I was getting to a good place after breaking up with an alcoholic and starting my own business, I was blessed with an unexpected pregnancy. My son was approaching his teen years. Knowing that I would be embarking on the journey of single parenting a second time, I followed through with the pregnancy.

With my 12 year old son as my support system, he was at my side as I birthed him a sister. We named her Grey. A little after she turned one, her father and I reconnected and he moved in to be a stay at home parent. We experienced a miscarriage in early 2020, followed by the chaos of raising a toddler in a newish relationship during a pandemic. It was a really hard time for me and my mental health took a deep dive.

I realized the loss of that baby was something I couldn’t heal from even though I had miscarried twice before. I’m not saying having another baby to replace the one I lost was going to fix everything, but we did plan for a third child and welcomed Maev into the world in July 2021.

After a few years of trying to navigate a relationship with way too many obstacles that I thought I could overcome , I had to give in and accept that it was not going to work out. I was now approaching single parenting round three. I look at my daughters now ages 4 and 7, and they look at me with the same little face my son use to look at me with and say “mommy will you play with me? “ And my heart breaks over and over again because I still have to work so much.

My job has been the only consistency in my life for the last 24 years, and if you’ve ever been in my chair, you know that not only am I entertaining with my stories, I’m also a darn good hairstylist. My schedule is always full, and my chair is never empty. With that said, it’s just me alone providing for my family. I’m very fortunate to be at a point in my life where I am pretty much debt free and financially stable enough to give my self and my kids a decent life. Unfortunately, because I am self-employed I don’t have any state disability coverage, and my healthcare will only cover a percentage of my surgery. With that said I am asking for help to cover the 4 to 6 weeks of work I have to miss, so that I can get my knee repaired and afford the time off to take care of expenses I currently pay alone, along with a portion of my surgery. I want to be able to run and jump and climb with my younger kids, and continue to adventure with my son.

Please consider the smallest donation to either this campaign, or my Venmo (to avoid the small percentage gofundme takes) @Veronica-Fabionar with “donation” in the description. 

Any amount exceeding my needed amount will be transferred to the college fund my son currently has, and my daughters’ future college fund.

Thank you ♥️✂️