Six Months and Counting

    You would not believe my story.  Today is February 10th, 2024.  Tomorrow is the six month anniversary of leaving my home, where I lived my entire life, in order to find a way to survive.  This story is raw and can be triggering.  Reader discretion is advised.  

July 2023

    "Matt, we can't keep this up anymore.  We are drowning", I expressed to my husband.  I had been chronically ill for over two years at this point and things were getting worse.  I could no longer go down the stairs from my second floor apartment.  The Florida heat was causing me to to have heat stroke every day even with the air conditioning blasting at 65 degrees.  I was barely able to drive anymore.  I could not cook for myself.  I was using mobility aids more and more.  And I didn't have a diagnosis that matched my symptoms.  My husband kept losing jobs for staying home to care for me when I needed him.  Friends were donating money towards rent but it was not enough and we hate asking ffor help. We were both raised to think it made us weak.  I was so terrified we were going to end up living in a tent in the woods.  In Brevard County, FL, the sheriffs are encouraged to destroy tents and belongings of the unhoused.  I couldn't handle that.    Who could? 

    We decided that the only way to hope for survival was to leave Florida.  We had good friends in Oregon that said they would have an RV ready for us to live in in October.  Oregon had good social services.  Matt could be aid to take care of me.  It sounded good.  But we needed somewhere to go until then.  After searching, we found a woman in Ohio that was looking for someone to care for her horses until April.  She promised to pay us weekly and that we would stay on her property for free.  We would have to be frugal but we could do it.  

August 2023

    We started selling everything we could, donating what we couldn't sell, and packing anything that means anything to us. 

(Too sick to keep writing.  Back later.)