As I mentioned in my previous post, I would absolutely love to own a Mac. I certainly wouldn't mind being another "Ultimate Switcher" like Stefan over at http://makemeswitch.blogspot.com/ . I applaud what Stefan did and the fact that he was able to achieve his goal. It’s truly amazing how helpful/generous people can be to complete strangers when the internet is the medium. I'm not here asking anyone to donate money for my benefit. I'm asking that money be donated to help somebody that is truly in need.
What follows is a description of what my girlfriend's mother has been through lately. She's not trying to be a switcher, but could certainly use some monetary assistance. If upon reading the below passage you feel like helping, please click the "Make a Donation" button and I promise that I will pass along all money donated to the school teacher in need.
My mother is a 54-year-old schoolteacher at a south-side, low-income middle school. She spent the last 29 years of her life married to my father. A year and a half ago he filed for divorce, which was also six months before he retired from his 26 year long career with the military. This divorce has cost her everything. She can’t even afford grocery’s most weeks. I am very close to my mother and made the decision to move back in with her and try to support her. Luckily, my job was able to transfer me into her city. The following passage is about her life, her struggles and all the sacrifices she has mad as a wife of a powerful military man and what it has left her.
My parents were both schoolteachers when they were married 29 years ago. Three years later, my dad had a change of heart and decided to enter the military. The next 26 years my Mom raised us kids, now 18, 21, and 24. She occasionally worked as a substitute teacher and had one or two full-time teaching positions. Unfortunately, the life of a wife in the military is anything but glamorous. We moved every year of my life and my Mother was the only thing that kept us together. My Dad would be gone for months at a time. We were all very proud of my Dad. Mom encouraged us to make banners and pictures and cut flowers for my dad before each homecoming. It was always an emotional day when he would return from his deployment.
The divorce has dragged on a year and a half and has left my mother bereft of everything. She hasn’t had any luck with lawyers and is currently on her second lawyer. She can’t seem to get anyone to stand up for her and get her any of the money she deserves. Instead the divorce just keeps dragging on, resulting in more debt building at a cost to the lawyers.
My Mom doesn’t know anything about law. My Dad has all sorts of connections from the military to help him find a good lawyer. As a result, my Mom, who had never been in debt a day in her life, is now in tens of thousands of debt to her lawyer. Each time she calls her lawyer to ask a question she is charged between $150 and $1000. Most of the time she leaves the conversation in tears. I am bewildered at the cost of lawyers and at the lack of empathy the system has. She wants to end this divorce, but my Father seems to keep dragging it on to make sure she receives nothing.
We have since found out that my Dad had been moving money from their accounts and moving it into bonds so my Mother couldn’t have any of the money and he is claiming that his Great-Aunt’s inheritance should be deducted from any of the money my mother should receive. The inheritance was given to our family 10 years ago. I believe most of the money was lost during the various economic busts during those years. I am writing this in hopes of finding some form of support for my Mother. I simply can not understand how a woman whom dedicates her life to her family is stripped of everything when the man of the house decides he wants to start a new life. Why should she be the one to carry the burden? She never was the one to spend any money. We always cut coupons and shopped the clearance rack. My
Dad was the one to spend the money. Now she is left without any money and forced to live a meager existence because of the inadequacies of our justice system. Why do we not value the life of a stay at home mother? What is my Mother supposed to do at the age of 54 with thousands of dollars in debt? This is supposed to be the time of her life when she settles back and watches her children at college and starts thinking of retirement. My mother will never be able to retire. She will have to spend every waking minute of her existence working. She has no retirement.
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