Hi. I'm Don. My mother and I are in desperate need of a new roof.

A few years back, my Dad died from cancer. Before he died, I promised him I would do everything in my power to take care of Mom. They had been married for 43 years, I was the only kid and all of our realtives were scattered all over the country. She had just been diagnosed with retinopathy which slowly robs her of her vision, a nasty little side effect of diabetes. So I moved back in with Mom and became her sole caregiver.

Long story short, the roof of her home, a very old double wide trailer, has been slowly going to rot. We have home owners insurance but their adjuster determined the cause of the rot was normal wear and tear with an added bonus of BLACK MOLD, which insurance, at least Mom's, refuses to cover, repair or remove.

I don't make a lot of money. Mom's on a fixed income. And I have done everything I can do within my physical and financial limits to repair what I could when I could. As you can see by the pictures, plastic and duct tape can only do so much.

Every time it rains, we live in fear of a collapse. Twice now, Mom herself has very nearly been injured by partial celing collapses in her bedroom over top her bed. Last summer during a heavy downpour, I was in the kitchen and got knocked down by some of the ceiling caving in with a ton of rain water right in front of the refrigerator. It was devasting, to say the least.

We aren't the kind of people that like to ask for help like this. But at this point, after almost six years of fighting the insurance company and praying the roof holds together to "just to get us through this storm, Lord, please"...I can no longer bear to have Mom or myself living in these conditions. We're both stressed beyond belief. Additional damage is being incurred from the water damages with floor rot and the black mold is well past the point of taking its toll on us despite the many air purifiers we've had to buy in an attempt to breathe half way decently.

So we are here, asking total strangers for help. We honestly need a new house, but that feels like we're being greedy, epsecially when so many others are in need...another reason why I've waited and put this off for so long.

The last estimate, just for the roof, was $20K. It's an astounding number. Soul crushing. And that doesn't even begin to factor in the floor repair, the interior ceiling damages or the removal of the black mold.

It's our hope that our predicament will find generous souls who will help us in what might be our greatest time of need. Mom is 78 with failing health from Type 2 diabetes, made so much worse with the stress and mold spores in the air here. I'm 53, a disabled war vet who can barely walk with these knees and somehow still finding what strength I can to keep Mom, myself and our little cat Max going, and what's left of this ceiling up over our heads.

Any help is appreciated beyond measure. Thank you.