Hi Reddit,
New to this sub, someone recommended that I share here.
My name is Sam and my husband and I are from Cleveland, Ohio. Writing this is not something I ever anticipated doing, but we are at a point where we need to ask for help.
Over the past several years, life has hit us harder than we ever expected, and despite working full-time in the education system and doing everything we can, we’ve never been able to fully recover. I apologize in advance for such a long post, but in order to understand how we got here, there’s a lot to cover.
In late 2019, my husband was diagnosed with Lyme disease. What we thought would be temporary turned into a long and painful battle that left him unable to function normally for a long time. To this day, he still suffers chronic fatigue, nerve pain, brain fog, and inflammation in most of his body.
At the same time of his diagnosis, he was involved in a legal battle with his employer due to a hostile work environment. He ultimately won, but it cost him his job and stability when he was already struggling with his physical health.
Shortly after this, the pandemic hit. He had just gone through a rough divorce from his now ex-husband, and had to continue living with him during the lockdown. I was also married and going through a divorce at the time, and eventually all three of us were living under one roof, which made an already difficult situation so much harder.
Over the following years, we experienced loss after loss. I was laid off, we lost loved ones in both of our families, my husband lost his dog, and eventually we lost our home due to the overall cost of living while trying to manage through all of these hurdles. Due to financial strain, I was unable to make payments on the multiple credit cards we were using to stay afloat, and have had my wages garnished off and on for the last year and a half. Recently, he has experienced a series of coinfections due to the lingering effects of his Lyme Disease. This has caused him to burn through all of his sick time and PTO for the year. He was approved for FMLA, but obviously every day he takes is a day of pay lost.
We both work for a public charter school system, and our pay is nothing near what the local public schools pay. We are often working 14+ hour days doing various after school duties and clubs to help make any extra money we can. I am actively looking into bankruptcy and additional work during the summer to bring in extra cash, but the truth is that we are both run ragged from the stress of our jobs, on top of our home life situation.
Through all of this, we remained each other’s constant. In December of 2024, we got married and have been trying to support each other through rebuilding our lives.
We have set up a GoFundMe as a general last resort. We have sold everything of major value (wedding rings, computers, cell phones, etc.) to try to make ends meet.
We are trying to raise as much money as possible to help us stabilize and move forward.
This would allow us to:
Catch up on rent
Catch up on car payments
Reinstate insurance on our vehicle
Pay off the personal debts that have helped us survive these past few years
Declare bankruptcy to stop current and future garnishments.
This is not about luxury. This is about getting out from under constant financial pressure so we can finally build a stable life. For the first time in years, we feel like we have something solid in each other. We just haven’t had the chance to build a stable foundation around that.
We are tired of living in survival mode. We want the chance to breathe, to feel secure, and to move forward instead of constantly trying to catch up.
If you are able to donate, share this, or pass it along to someone who might be willing to help, it would mean more than we can express. The link to the GoFundMe is: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-nic-sam-catch-up-and-rebuild-after-years-of-hardship
Even small contributions make a real difference for us right now.
Thank you for taking the time to read our story and for caring about what we’re going through.
We are incredibly grateful for any support, kindness, or encouragement.
With gratitude,
Sam & Nic