Hi. My name is Rita Miller. I live in Texas and lost my husband of 40 years to an aortic aneurysm in 2018. I've been struggling since then with income and keeping my house running.

I finally had to file for bankruptcy earlier this year in order to keep my house. As a thank you for being so loyal to my house, the drains under the house have mostly broken, leaving me with one useless toilet, one toilet that might be broken as well (it may not have gotten to the point of being clogged with mud), and no kitchen or laundry.

Where I live, homes are built on top of a limestone shelf that has 4-10 feet of dirt on top. We found this out after we bought the house. There are no basements, and most homes are set on a concrete slab. When there's a severe drought (like we've had for the past 4 years), and then a lot of rain over a short period of time (as we've had this spring), the dirt moves slightly on the shelf. Mostly, this just results in some cracks in the walls and doors that stick (or stop sticking). But it can also affect the plumbing that goes through the slab and down into the ground toward the street sewer. My home was built in 1974, and the plumbing has probably been worked on before, but I've been in the house for almost 10 years without any problems. The plumbers I've talked to said they've never seen a catastrophic plumbing fail like mine.

I can't get financing for this for 2 years after a bankruptcy. Eventually, the city will condemn my home if I can't get this fixed. I've prayed and prayed about what to do, have tried every avenue, and there's just nothing available to help me get this problem fixed. I'm the oldest in our family, and none of our kids or other family members are in a position to help.

If you have a few dollars available, would you please consider donating?