I’m a mother of two trying to provide for her family. My kid’s dad past away on October 11, 2019, due to what I believe was an overdose of Ativan. I had demanded they not give him the second dose, but they did anyway. My kids and their dad were best friends, and I had seen him every day of my life for 14 years, then in an instant he was gone. I became the soul provider for us, so there was no time for grieving really. I was working for myself as a handyman, and was pretty behind on rent, so I got help from a church to pay rent up so that I could just focus on providing and not have the stress of eviction.

I told my landlord that if I was gonna have to move, then I would need to use the money, which was over 3 grand total, to find a home for us, and she said that she wasn’t asking me to move. But as soon as I paid her the money, the next day she brought up shelters and options for housing. And at the time I was scheduling jobs, working 10 or more hours a day doing hard work! Blowing leaves off roofs, installing flood lights and ceiling fans, hanging Christmas lights in the cold, misty rain. I worked for the landlord at her house. I cleaned her gutters and replaced the wax ring on her toilet. I spread mulch around all the flower beds with a pitch fork, did the whole yard—a job that a company would have charged $1,500 or more for. In exchange she only knocked 30 dollars off my rent. All of this was time away from my kids, so they were pretty much dealing with their dad passing away all on their own, as well as somewhat grieving for me because I was gone so much.

My landlord filed for eviction despite everything. I filed a request to at least give us more time. Because I was not behind on rent, the judge said she has to give me a 60-day written notice. The landlord got a lawyer, and all of the big people in the county are pretty much kin to my landlord, so I felt very intimidated. I searched and called and begged for a place to rent, and I have yet to find something. She filed the eviction again, and because she had a lawyer, they said I wasn’t covered by the eviction moratorium. So here I am waiting on next Friday for all of my things to be set out in the road because I don’t have anywhere to take them. I paid my last 400 dollars for a dumpster because I can’t take everything with me because we have nowhere to go.

My issue is that the place is just going to sit here empty, and I wasn’t even behind on my rent!!! I did everything I could to keep a stable place for my kids, and it still got taken. I was even forced to get rid of our dog. On top of everything, my aunt that raised me, who I pretty much considered my mother, passed away in March of this year, and her husband, who was like my dad, passed away September. And I am still trying to find time to grieve over my best friend and help my kids deal with their emotions too.

I am so exhausted with trying to find a place to rent! And things just keep on moving. I just want to grieve and remember the people that we’ve lost who meant so much to me. And I want to actually start living again. I want to cry and release all these emotions, but I don’t have time to. Thanks for listening to my story.