I don’t believe anyone relishes the idea of having to ask for help from strangers. We like to feel personally empowered, in control of our fates, and capable, but reality has a tendency to care little for our personal desires. While we have been blessed for many years to be able to keep a roof over our heads, we’ve come close to disaster a few times. This is one of those times.

I will neither embellish nor sugarcoat. We need to raise around $7,000 to wipe our debt clean with the mobile home park we live in, and I need to ask for that help from strangers in order to raise that much. We’ve been able to pay our mortgage, car note, and bills, but have fallen behind on the lot rent. I have asked what little family I have remaining, but they aren’t in a position to help much. With the message I am also asking my friends to pitch in, and a few already have in the way they can.

But here’s the thing. I’m not willing to ask people to give what they can. In fact, I’m not willing to ask people to give more than $1. There is a fairness to this, I believe. It levels the playing field and eliminates the imbalance of imposing a burden on others to save my family. So, that’s what I’m asking, for you to go to my Ko-Fi page and grant to me $1 a month. If you send more, as there is a facility to do so, I will return it. I’m not asking for more money from individuals. I’m asking for more individuals to give one, simple, plain, uncomplicated dollar.

The more who do so, the more we’ll have. If those who contribute their $1 ask others they know to do the same, and that continues outward, then with a few thousand contributors, we’ll have the funds we need to save our home and my little family without burdening anyone. That is my goal.

We’re a simple family. My wife and I have been writers for decades and we were blessed with a daughter whom, after discovering she is Autistic and has epilepsy, remains an only child. And despite her challenges she achieved her Associates Degree at a local college and is an accomplished artist. And yet she still faces difficulties, so we have dedicated our lives to protecting her. And at the same time, we deal with our own issues. My wife has had all of one and most of the other adrenal glands removed for benign tumors, suffers from Cushing’s Disease, and has had various other surgeries with complicated names I can never remember.

I am a structural mess having been diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in 1988 and having a motorcycle accident in 1990, I’m starting to feel it in at 56 years old. I have had a knee replaced and will likely need to get the other one done, a cervical spinal fusion, and will need to get an arm bone shortened to relieve intense wrist pain. And we all caught Covid in February 2020 when I was still driving for Lyft in LA and Orange County. I had Shingles at the time, as well. That was fun. And I now suffer from a range of Long Covid symptoms and have been going through rounds of testing to for my own Cushing’s Disease. Fate can be cruel.

There are additional societal and political issues at play in 2025, but I won’t bother going into those. Suffice it to say that we may face additional existential challenges in an uncertain future. Our need is simple. Our request for help is simple. Again, all I ask is that you go to my Ko-Fi page and agree to contribute one, single, solitary dollar to us on a monthly basis and share this plea so that others might do the same. If enough do so, then we will have what we need to survive.

And again, if you send more, I’ll send it back. If we get a lot more $1 subscribers than we need, then we’ll donate the extra to others who need help or organizations that benefit those whom are othered or deemed less worthy. We are all human beings. We all deserve to have a place to call home and a little recognition, regardless of who we are, what we look like, what language we speak, who we love, or what we think or believe.

I thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Tyler

PS: You might note that my Ko-Fi page is named Dollarnomics. I have written two articles about this concept. The first one is here and the second one is here.