2026 has been an incredibly difficult year for our family. We began the year grieving the loss of our grandfather, and not long after, I was hit with a mysterious chronic illness that has left me unable to work. Financially and emotionally, we have been doing everything we can just to keep going.

Then, on August 11th, a terrible storm caused a major power outage. Trying to keep our household going during the outage cost us more than $700 in gasoline alone. But just two days later, our family was faced with something far more frightening.

On August 13th, my father went to the emergency room struggling with shortness of breath. He was later admitted to the ICU, where we learned he was experiencing AFib and heart failure.

My dad was the only person in our household able to work. He has been supporting not only himself, but my mother, me, and my daughter—his granddaughter. He has always been the person our family could depend on, no matter what we needed.

Now, he is wearing a LifeVest and is unable to return to work until his heart becomes stronger. We don’t know how long that will take. It could be weeks, it could be months, or he may never be able to return to the job he has worked so hard at for so many years. He is just one year away from retirement.

My father has spent his life giving everything he has to his family. Even when things were difficult, he made sure we were taken care of. Now, when he needs us most, I wish more than anything that I were in a position to take care of him the way he has always taken care of us.

Asking for help has never been easy for me, but right now, it’s the one thing I can do.

If you are able to help our family during this incredibly difficult time, whether through a donation or simply by sharing our story, it would mean more to us than I could ever put into words. Every bit of support will help us with household expenses and bills while my dad focuses on what matters most right now—healing and getting his heart stronger.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story, for sharing it, for donating if you’re able, and most of all, for keeping my dad and our family in your thoughts.