Helping A Single Mom Start Over – Amy, Kaylea and Savannah

If you’ve been following the NYAM Facebook page you know my cousin’s husband unexpectedly died two weeks ago.

He died at home, their daughters were there and witnessed hime die, and this started a chain reaction of events that led to Amy and the girls needing to move immediately.

It’s been a very long and grueling two weeks for Amy (who has lupus) and Kaylea and Savannah.

Their worlds were turned upside down overnight.

Amy has two siblings – Melissa and Jeremy.

Their father is my Uncle Mark. He’s my dad’s brother.

Uncle Mark was married to Starr.

She was an amazing woman. She died from scleroderma 20 years ago.

It was devastating for the whole family.

Uncle Mark never remarried or dated and living alone with a broken heart has not been good for him.

He just kind of let his house fall into disrepair.

Fortunately Uncle Mark has plenty of room at his house, so the plan was for Amy and the girls to move in there asap.

But a lot of work had to be done.

The kitchen was pretty bad, and so were the bedrooms Amy and the girls were going to be in.

We got a dumpster to the house so the bedrooms could get emptied out quickly.

Then friends, family, and total strangers came together to get shit done.

The kitchen got a total scrub down. Broken blinds were removed. The fridge was completely cleaned.

Now the kitchen looks and feels much better.

And the fridge is clean.

The bedrooms were pretty depressing.

They got them emptied out and painted.

Ceiling fans were installed.

Closets were painted.

The girls’ room is starting to come together!

We are waiting on some furniture, but it’s getting there.

The bathroom got a total scrub down, and if you ordered from the Amazon wishlist, the shower head arrived and was installed!

And if you ordered the shower curtain and shelves, those arrived too, and now the bathroom looks like this!

It will be good for Uncle Mark to have Amy and the girls there, and it’s good for Amy and the girls to have a safe place to live.

They still have a long road ahead of them. When they should have been greiving and resting they were moving furniture and cleaning and painting.

They were not financially prepared for something like this. They have no savings. There was only a $5000 life insurance policy which doesn’t even cover the cost of the funeral.

So if you could help out, there are still some things on the Amazon wish list. I’d really love for the girls to get the tapestries they want for their walls. They’ve been through hell the last two weeks. They deserve the BEST room!

Melissa (Amy’s sister) started a Go Fund Me. We are almost to the goal of $15,000. Every little bit helps.

There is also a meal train. You can donate a meal or have a meal delivered to gift a Grub Hub gift card.

I don’t want Amy to have to think about dinner for the next two weeks.

I know this is kind of a quick recap and if you haven’t been on the NYAM FB page you might have questions, but I wanted to get this update out there.

Amy and the girls moved into Uncle Mark’s last night and that’s largely because of your help.

Thank you so much for helping this very deserving family to have a fresh start.

I’ll be back with more updates soon!