As a result of the community quilt diary for Keith Olbermann, the terrible situation of a fellow Kossack has come to light. Her comment in Sara R's diary concerned her so much she hunted her down.
Bluebluelady is a senior not yet of Medicare age. She broke her leg awhile ago and had to have surgery on it – without insurance. She has Medicare now -- but this set her back – and coupled with the downturn in the economy that has hurt her petsitting business in Sammamish, WA (a suburb of Seattle), she is in immediate and severe financial trouble.
Sara R would make a quilt for her but that’s not what she needs.
She needs help getting her head above water and to forestall foreclosure on her house. You can donate to her directly by using this Paypal Link
From her email to Sara R:
I was doing Ok, just barely making ends meet up until last year. But with the economy as it is, my current customers aren't taking vacations and businesses are not sending their clients on business trips like they were before, so my little supplemental venture that was crucial to my survival just crashed. This coupled with a series of deaths of several of my best, but older clients due to cancer in one case, hip issues in another and liver failure in the third, my income took a nosedive. (I specialize in caring for older critters, who need a lot of special care and attention, so these loses were expected but still really hard to take both from an emotional and financial standpoint.) Now, despite the fact I have been rated by Angie's List as the cream of the crop of pet-sitters in the Puget Sound area by their consumers and clients and that all of my current customers give me rave reviews, (sorry...just a little pride there... ;-) I have not been able to generate replacement business in the current environment and have fallen miserably behind in my mortgage payments and have no way of making that up to forestall a foreclosure.
She needs help placing her website and spreading word about her business.
Anyway, I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish despite my disabilities. I have severe hand (essential) tremors on the physical side and suffer from depression on the mental front so many of the typical ways of earning supplemental income are not viable. Working with animals gives me much pleasure and helps fend off the depression, and the critters could care less about the tremors, so it has been a mutually beneficial occupation up until the financial crisis threw everything into a tailspin. I built the petsitting website myself, but don't have a clue as to how to get my site into any of the search engines on the Internet to find new customers, (of course without having to pay as that's not an option right now.) So that’s one area, if you knew of anyone who could help me help figure out how to get my site found by potential customers (at my low rates I can only viably service a ten-mile range from my home), that would be amazing.
She needs a roommate – and has a room to let for $500/month in a lovely, sunny home.
And yes I definitely need a roommate. I had one last year, but she had a household full of furniture in storage and eventually needed more space than I could provide, so she found a 2-bedroom and moved last August. I have excellent references from her as a roommate and we still are good friends. The issue with my home, is that it is not near public transportation as I live about 2 miles from any bus line which makes it imperative that my roommate have his or her own car. The bedroom available is fully and nicely furnished with its own bath) but finding a roommate who is willing to sign a 12-month rental agreement (required by the mortgage company as proof of income to even consider any restructuring) has been really, difficult, but critical to any plans of surviving my situation right now. Putting out the word in our community somehow, would be of a great help.
She needs some legal advice.
Next, I do not know or have any funds to afford a lawyer since things are going downhill so fast now, (as after Bank of America raided my personal checking account yesterday – without notice or any court order - for a past due credit card that was closed two years ago, I’m lucky to be able to buy a tank of gas until the beginning of next month when my disability check arrives.) That was particularly disturbing, as I was only following the government sponsored credit counselor’s advise not to pay the credit card company any more money. So, I would more than treasure the advice and guidance of anyone who has the expertise to help me protect my rights and navigate the process working with the mortgage company to understand how best to proceed if worse came to worse.
Please donate to this sweet lady if you can – she has been so beleaguered by events that were not her doing she is just in shock. It is hard for her to ask for help – but I think we need to insist that she does because it is necessary at this point -- and because we can help. If you have suggestions about roommate prospects, legal advice, or website assistance, please comment below or feel free to email Sara R.