Desperate does not even begin to explain the severity of this situation. 💔😭😢 

I have went back and forth with this for months now and unfortunately, it may be a little too late.

Hopefully you all can relate to ‘small town’ mentality. That’s going to play a HUGE part in this situation, especially while I’m attempting to explain why I’m the ‘anonymous niece‘

My aunt and I have had many conversations about me starting a crowd-funding platform for her. I have promised her I would leave her name/photos out of it. She refuses, saying that due to the details of what I’m going to explain, everyone would still know exactly who I’m talking about in our ‘small town.’

Everyone here knows her and knows our family. Any time I bring up having a fundraiser, starting a gofundme, she begs me not to, saying how embarrassing it would be not only for her, but she doesn’t want her children to be aware of the financial situation.

I’m sure if I were to put her name and face on this plea, the community would rally around her the way she has always done for each and every one of them who needed her.

But I can not go against her wishes.

Which I realize may very well lead to her getting nothing as far as is concerned. And that’s completely understandable. I’m not really m sure how willing and able I would be to donate to a nameless/faceless fundraiser.

Horrible people-scammers-lazy-refusing to get a job, etc., have truly done a number on humanity & the ability to trust someone’s (especially a stranger on the internet) words.

If anyone has any suggestions on something else I could do to help her and her children, please let me know. I’m at a loss.

Financially she is at the end of her rope and I don’t know what else to do, so it can’t make things any worse for her. I’ve just watched her try and work so hard, for so long, and I can’t understand how or why she’s about to lose every thing she has. Watching what has happened to her, has proved to me that being a good person and working hard are not enough anymore.

My parents have always worked hard and taught me the seriousness of work ethic.

But I’ve honestly never met another person who has worked as hard as my aunt has.

I’ve never put all the things she has done down on ‘paper,’ and I feel that when I do, it may seem made up or hard to believe for some. However for those of us who know her, we could personally vouch for each and every detail. I did consider doing short videos of people she has helped, and just leaving her name out of it. Or asking a few of them to write a short note about how she changed their lives, and/or what she did to help them.

That will take a good amount of time, which is some thing she does not have much left of at this point.

She has been an upstanding pillar to our community for 20+ years.

She has always coached whatever sports her children’s schools do not have enough volunteers for.  She’s the mom/aunt who made sure not a single child went without. She is the embodiment of selflessness, generosity, truly empathetic-the most altruistic person I’ve ever known. 

For years when her businesses were open, she held annual school supply drives for children in our community.

For Easter, Halloween & Christmas she held free events for children where we gave out food and drinks, more school supplies, books, (she had us make grade/age appropriate bags that included learning materials, coloring/activity books, reading books)

The last event which was a community Halloween event for children, brought in over 450 children. 
Every single child received gift bags, snacks/juices &  books! She put together a ‘candy apple bar’ where they got to decorate their apple like a pumpkin!

She sent me to the store 2 different times because we were running out of supplies and had me buy what was left on the shelves. I made a comment that day which was regarding some thing my dad taught me as a business owner, when she handed me $700 (the FIRST refill trip) to go get extra materials for the kids bags, I said, “at least you can claim this as a write-off!” Her response, “not things like this.”

She held annual blanket and water drives for the homeless every year.

She and her children made essentials bags and passed them out, consecutive years on end.

I can’t remember a year that she and her children have NOT volunteered at a shelter or asked the schools what supplies they needed most, and came back a few hours later with exactly that.

My aunt was the first person to ever bring St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital walk to our area.

Speaking of children, she has raised her children to be just as generous, selfless & empathetic, as she is.

I’ll never forget picking my little cousin (her middle son) up from middle school one day, right after Thanksgiving break was over! He got into my car, with a huge smile on his face and BOTH hands FULL of what looked like book marks with yarn tied on the tops of them. Of course I’m like, “what is allll that?!”

”these are the kids who we’re going to make sure wake up with Christmas presents under the tree. I took every single one of the tags off the angel tree, I just want to make sure they all get something.” That boy is his mothers child.

There is no question.

We see and hear people described as selfless, empathetic, attentive to the others needs, generous, all of those beautiful traits that stand out in a person. By no means am I minimizing or discrediting others in that sense.

I am 28 years old & have came in contact with a lot of amazing people in my lifetime, but never have I met another human being like her.

Oddly enough though, after seeing the way things have been going for her in the last year or two, I guess maybe there’s a reason more people aren’t like her.

It seems that doing what’s right, taking care of the world around you, giving & giving just to end up losing every thing you’ve worked for, maybe being the way she has been isn’t the answer.

Her grandmother (my great) made a comment when we were discussing some financial things a few months ago. She said, “just imagine if you kept all the money you’ve used to buy things for all these drives and events, not allowed people to borrow from you, bought other people’s children clothes-shoes/supplies etc.”-our grandma is only concerned with HERSELF and one son, and had always gotten on my aunt about doing things for people. My aunts response was,

”I would do it all over again, because in that moment, I had it and they needed it. End of discussion.” (Those two do not get along very well lol)

I don’t know what I could do prove to everyone this isn’t just another scheme trying to scam people out of their hard earned money.

I can’t use MY NAME because that gives the entire thing away, too.

Again, those who live in huge cities are probably thinking to themselves, “GIRL, you and your aunt are NOT that popular or important!”

Which was why I tried to stress the importance of knowing what ‘small town mentality’ is. lol

I bet out of the 100% of local people who read this, 95% know EXACTLY who it is about.

Also, just so you know, her business never recovered from Covid. She invested her entire life into that business. EVERY PENNY she had. I watched her build it from the ground up. They built two spaces/rooms in the building for the children to be able to hang out, watch tv, do their homework, etc. she hated being away from them having to work so much, so she just decided to make them their own space there.

The business’s grand opening was Sept 2019.

She received the call from the Health Department on St. Patrick’s Day-2020 that she had to shut down indefinitely.

The inventory alone that was lost at that time, was  financially catastrophic . But what could anyone do about it? It was out of any and everyone’s hands at that point. So she waited.

It wasn’t until NOVEMBER 2020 that she (we) could open back up at full capacity.

She never took a paycheck.

She just made sure no matter what, all of her employees-myself included-were paid.

Our city has RIDICULOUS UTILITY RATES.

The number of times I watched her SOB writing out a $2100.00 check for LIGHTS.

I’ve already said too much and should probably stop while I’m ahead.

They have to move, NOW. The home they have lived in for 5+ years, has been sold 😡

My aunt and uncle are the hardest working people I’ve ever seen in my life. And they have instilled that same work ethic into their children. Which is another reason why she refuses to ask for help. 

I realize a stranger‘s word on the internet means absolutely nothing, and understandably. I truly do not know how to prove this isn’t just another scam/lazy individual who refuses to work and would rather beg strangers on the internet for financial assistance. 

In the midst of just life in general wreaking havoc on them currently, her husband fell off a 12 foot ladder working this past Friday. The odds have stacked up against them like nothing else I have ever seen before. 

I asked her what she thought about maybe contacting a couple of people she’s always bailed out financially, or maybe a couple of people who ‘borrowed’ money from her, to see if they could return   the favor. And I get the same response every time. “I didn’t help them in their time of need to throw it back in their face one day.” 🙄😔

I was willing to take out a personal loan, without letting her know that of course, but for whatever reason after countless Google searches & a trip to my bank day before yesterday, I’ve learned that ‘personal loans’ are few & far between these days-for good reason I’m sure, but still 💔💔

I’m open to any and all suggestions for what ever else I could do that would truly help her.

I know this was a lot, thank you for even taking the time and effort to read it.

Again, if anyone has any suggestions at all as far as things I can do to help her, please let me know.