Struggling family needs support

Hi all, I’m Ashley. I haven’t been in Janet and Clay’s lives for very long, but I feel very close with them – they’ve become some of our very best friends. I’ve watched my friends go through some of life’s most difficult challenges, and I’m reaching out on their behalf to ask for what amounts to a miracle.

Janet and her family have been through an insurmountable series of events stemming back a couple years and they’ve reached a boiling point. I’m devastated hearing the blow after blow this family has been through. This latest event, their master toilet leaking through their ceiling into their kitchen below all day while they worked, is just the last straw. I hate seeing my friend struggle and her family unravel. We need to do something to help.

I want to detail the last few years of their lives story for full perspective on why I finally felt the need to write this story and reach out to their people for help.

Back in 2018, Clay was medically separated from army who left the family homeless and without car, stranded in hotel until a friend had them come to her house for 3 months. It was an incredibly difficult situation to say the least put the whole family in dire need of support. During this time, Clay’s father unexpectedly passed away, leaving them with an even worse situation emotionally.

After what seemed like forever, they finally received Clay’s separation pay and they moved to Thousand Oaks, CA to start over. Within a couple months of being there, Clay’s beloved mom passed away. He lost both parents quickly and tragically leading to even further devastation for the family.

Janet attempted to help their financial situation by getting a job with a well-known company, only to be let go a year later after a painful and inaccurate misunderstanding. At this time the pandemic hit, which left her with almost no hope for securing a replacement job. Of course, in the continuing struggle so many of us went through in the shutdown, Clay was then let go from his job.

It was at this time the family decided that coming home to Missouri, in the area that Clay and Janet met, to be with Janet’s ailing grandfather and extended family was the best choice. She had longed to spend whatever time she could with him, especially given the sudden loss of Clay’s parents. To those of you who don’t know, Janet lost her mother years ago to stage 4 breast cancer in 2009 at age 52 after battling for 5 years. She lived with her grandparents as a young child and again in high school. She wasn’t her grandparent’s biological child but it always felt as though Janet was one of their own.

So Janet and Clay spent every single dime they had packing in all of their belongings into a moving truck and buying a house in Missouri. It took almost 6 months for their belongings to arrive and after several increases in price to release their things. Eventually, that was resolved and the family was settling well. And then within months, Janet’s grandfather suddenly died having contracted Covid. Her entire reason for moving her family here had just passed away.

In the ensuring aftermath of his death, Janet and her loved ones have endured despicable treatment and decision making from their remaining family members. I’m talking the nightmare we all fear of what happens when families try to “fairly” disperse their loved one’s estate. Probate insanity with forged and fraudulent documents, all of Janet’s and her mother’s personal possessions at her grandfather’s house destroyed, stolen or donated by greedy, vindictive family members. Her childhood home gifted to a nephew for a dollar. Clearly, some of them have deep seeded jealousy of the relationship Janet had with her grandparents. These people have broken their written and spoken promises to make sure that Janet was taken care in the event of the grandparent’s death. Kalie had to discover family heirlooms of her grandmothers in a local second-hand store and spent hundreds to get even some of it back.

The family has worked tirelessly to find a way to fight the deep web of deceit and fraud her family has brought upon them. They’ve spent any money they’ve been able to accumulate and don’t have enough to wage the war that her family insists on.

On top of this nightmare, which Janet has been told would cost a minimum of $10K to even begin to fight with with a lawyer, there’s $1500 in dental bills, $600 a month in IRS back pay deductions, and now $1500 in deductibles to be able to use their kitchen after the massive upstairs leak. And I’m sure much more that I don’t even know about. Carson had to stop his music school lessons for them to make ends meet. Janet is suffering, Clay is struggling. The kids are being unnecessarily punished, the list goes on and on.

There is a deep need for this family to find some relief and I’m hoping that their family and friends can chip in with $5, $10, $20 to help contribute to bringing them out of this hole life has thrown at them. While they have reluctantly agreed to allow me to post this, Janet and Clay are not exactly comfortable with it. They are both working full time but their income is entirely tied up in daily living expenses and mortgage. They are not keen on asking for hand outs and they certainly don’t expect anyone to put themselves out. But I know how much they mean to all of us and I want to show them the love and come together to bring some breathing room.

Please consider whatever you’re comfortable with, I know the entire family would be so grateful for the help.