Help For Me And My Daughters
Donation protected
Hi, my name is David Ramsey Jr. I have two daughters, Brionna Ramsey, who is 18, and Mariah Ramsey, who is 9. The purpose of this GFM is to ask for help because I am failing both of my daughters and we are still struggling. We are barely making it, even though I am working every day. I definitely didn't want to have to ask for help, but right now I don't know what else I can do
BRIONNA RAMSEY 18 ...MARIAH RAMSEY 9
I'm starting to feel lost because of all the events that we have been going through since 2020. My family and I were first hit by COVID-19, and I ended up losing my business, which was called Eagle One Services. I did residential remodeling and lawn care. It closed down in April 2020 when our state was shut down for quarantine. It lasted a little longer here in the state of Michigan
BUT WHAT SAVED MY BUSINESS WAS THE ABILITY TO APPLY FOR A PPP LOAN IN APRIL 2021 WHEN MICHIGAN REOPENED. I WAS APPROVED FOR $8,190. SO WHAT I ENDED UP DOING WAS PAYING OFF EVERYTHING THAT I WAS BEHIND ON OR OWED, TO GET MY BUSINESS BACK UP AND RUNNING. THE ONLY DOWNFALL TO THE LOAN IS THAT MY PAYMENT WILL BE DUE SOON. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE 100% FORGIVEN, BUT THE BANK I USED HAS BEEN HAVING A LOT OF ISSUES WITH ACCESSING MY ACCOUNT TO FORGIVE MY LOAN
I cashed in my stocks that I had left after the Sept tech crash and sold my crypto so I could get back to making money. I bought new equipment and purchased new business cards. I even bought 2 power washers to add to my company for when the state reopened. That is what helped me out of the pandemic strong and ready to go. I put everything I had left to my name into making this work.
The night I was getting everything ready to start back to work, which I had a couple of power washing jobs lined up for a couple of local businesses in the area. But where I live, we were hit by a flood. We were on our way home from grocery shopping and our alternator got wet. I needed a tow back on 06/2021. The tow truck led to our car being stolen, sold, stripped, and damaged.
WHAT THE TOW TRUCK COMPANY DID TO OUR VEHICLE WAS WRONG. IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED. THEY WERE HIRED BY (USAA) TO TOW OUR VEHICLE HOME 2 MILES AWAY. BUT INSTEAD, THEY ENDED UP STEALING AND SELLING OUR CAR TO A COLLISION SHOP BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT THAT THEY COULD CASH OUT ON USAA FOR STORAGE. THEY DECIDED TO ILLEGALLY HOLD OUR CAR FOR 38 DAYS WHILE THE COLLISION SHOP TRIED TO EXTORT ME AND USAA FOR $12,495 FOR STORAGE, TOWING, AND HAZARD FEES. THEY ENDED UP SWAPPING OUT CAR PARTS WITH A VEHICLE THAT THEY HAD ON THEIR PROPERTY JUST 1 YEAR NEWER. THEY ALSO GOT $2,495 BACK FOR WHAT THEY BOUGHT MY CAR FOR FROM THE TOW USING A FAKE INVOICE.
When this happened to our vehicle, which I'm still out here trying to fix and fight for every day, I was told by the State of Michigan that these two towing and collision companies have done this before. I was even emailed by the Michigan State Police, Sgt. Jackson, who said there are big loopholes. They also mentioned that there might not be anything they can do, but I can take them to civil court, which will cost a lot of money for a lawyer.
7 months after our car incident incident, my father called his insurance company to ask what they were going to do, as they had hired the tow truck. They replied to him that it is their problem and told him to move on. Six hours later, my father passed away from a heart attack, leaving it impossible for me to pay for his cremation. We lost everything that I had saved up to get my business going, which has failed because of our car accident.
Leaving me to set up a Go Fund to ask for the $1380 that I needed to have my father cremated. That will forever hurt inside because my dad deserved so much better than what I was able to give him. Thank God for the donors because the V.A never sent out the $300 that they offered to go towards the $2,230 cremation. So while waiting to make my goal, which took 3 weeks, I was emailed by Eli Saslow who wanted to write a story about my father called "The Death Spiral of an American Family." The story by Eli in The Washington Post dropped on 03/22/2022
There were a lot of donors who donated money to me for my daughter Brionna's future because she was working 2 jobs. They just wanted to see her go back to school because she's only 17 and she needs to focus on her education. They wanted me to put the money in a savings account for when she graduates and I did. But for both my daughters. Est. graduation
I put $10,000 in Brionna's account and $5,000 in Mariah's account because she is only in second grade. With the rest of the money that was donated to me, I paid off the back rent and paid 6 months in advance. I also paid for driver's education and I paid for Uber and Lyft rides for work while I fixed our car. Since I'm still struggling and instead of starting a new GoFundMe account and starting from scratch, I'm going to change my father's GFM and ask for help to get my family through these hard times and challenges that we are facing. Also, I have 263 donors on this account who have helped my daughter for when she graduates. Those donors deserve updates on how we are doing, which all of the updates that I made everyone can read them because there are more details on everything that I did with the donations.
. When the story dropped, everyone started to donate to my father's GFM for his cremation, and I received some emails from a few people telling me that I needed to shut it down because my father's cremation was paid. So, close it down. I was tired of receiving the rude emails from everyone, so I ended up turning off the donations, which I shouldn't have. The sad thing is, I didn't even know that I was receiving donations until Eli Saslow mentioned it to me in Messenger after the story dropped. I thought when I met my goal, it closed.
It bothers me that I allowed those people to pressure me into turning off the donation. I could have really used the funds that were coming in. I even tried to start another one, but everyone still donated to this GoFundMe.
The root of all my problems is not having a car. That started all of our problems for us. It changed everything. It caused my family and me to be in this situation. Without a car, I couldn't get back and forth to work. I also couldn't get Brionna back and forth to either one of her two jobs. I couldn't even get my 7-year-old Mariah to and from home, nor could I get her to her doctor's appointment. She has 6 disabilities, and she isn't receiving her disability anymore because I couldn't get her to her medical review when COVID 19 had everything shut down.
Because I had to use Ubers to get my family to all of those places we needed to go, it really accumulated to a lot of money. But I had no other choice because of no car. Above in the picture is just 5% of the rides that I paid for us to get around
That was another thing that caused my family to hit rock bottom. I even tried to rebuild the whole engine from top to bottom, and the car still isn't running. I put so much time and money into getting it working before the girls go back to school. They both start in 11 days, a couple of days before Mariah's 8th birthday. I'm already starting to get ulcers trying to figure out how I'm going to make sure I can get both to school. Brionna has to go to a school 2 cities away in Southgate. That is the only school in our area that is allowing her to go back to school and graduate on time because she is going to be 18 in January.
I'm a little more worried about my little one Mariah and how the school treated us last year. I had to pay $22+ a day every day to get her back and forth to school since Mariah would be late for her first hour. The school called CPS on me. Here are just 4 receipts for one-way trips only. This is what I paid to get Mariah to school. I have over 50+ receipts from Lyft and Uber. The school only.
Even though she met the requirements for receiving bus rides with her disabilities, the school would not approve us. I begged the school board almost every day to help us out with a bus, but they didn't when they could have. They ended up blaming me for the reason why my daughter was developing slowly in 1st grade, when delayed development is one of her disabilities. The school said it was because she was always late for her first hour. I was lucky I was able to get her there though.
I always seem to bounce back! But lately, I haven't really felt like I'm going to. I was working 2 jobs recently but got let go from one of them because the boss was unable to stay operating. I'm out here each day searching for a second job while working 12 to 16 hour shifts whenever I can, which isn't often. Because of this, I'm starting to lose everything due to our economy and inflation. Here are just a few bills that are due soon or shut off.
These past nine months have been difficult with his ridiculous rent and the high cost of living. Despite working two jobs and providing for my daughters, I am barely able to stay afloat. The landlord has raised the rent twice within a six-month period, and it has now reached $1475. However, I have still managed to pay it every month, even though it was extremely challenging. I even went into financial debt with my other bills to ensure that the rent was paid, resulting in multiple shutoffs and disconnections of my water, electricity, gas, and internet. Now, there is a strong possibility that my daughters and I will become homeless because every place I inquire about is either too expensive to move into or not yet available.
BRIONNA RAMSEY 18 ...MARIAH RAMSEY 9
I'm starting to feel lost because of all the events that we have been going through since 2020. My family and I were first hit by COVID-19, and I ended up losing my business, which was called Eagle One Services. I did residential remodeling and lawn care. It closed down in April 2020 when our state was shut down for quarantine. It lasted a little longer here in the state of Michigan
BUT WHAT SAVED MY BUSINESS WAS THE ABILITY TO APPLY FOR A PPP LOAN IN APRIL 2021 WHEN MICHIGAN REOPENED. I WAS APPROVED FOR $8,190. SO WHAT I ENDED UP DOING WAS PAYING OFF EVERYTHING THAT I WAS BEHIND ON OR OWED, TO GET MY BUSINESS BACK UP AND RUNNING. THE ONLY DOWNFALL TO THE LOAN IS THAT MY PAYMENT WILL BE DUE SOON. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE 100% FORGIVEN, BUT THE BANK I USED HAS BEEN HAVING A LOT OF ISSUES WITH ACCESSING MY ACCOUNT TO FORGIVE MY LOAN
I cashed in my stocks that I had left after the Sept tech crash and sold my crypto so I could get back to making money. I bought new equipment and purchased new business cards. I even bought 2 power washers to add to my company for when the state reopened. That is what helped me out of the pandemic strong and ready to go. I put everything I had left to my name into making this work. The night I was getting everything ready to start back to work, which I had a couple of power washing jobs lined up for a couple of local businesses in the area. But where I live, we were hit by a flood. We were on our way home from grocery shopping and our alternator got wet. I needed a tow back on 06/2021. The tow truck led to our car being stolen, sold, stripped, and damaged.WHAT THE TOW TRUCK COMPANY DID TO OUR VEHICLE WAS WRONG. IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED. THEY WERE HIRED BY (USAA) TO TOW OUR VEHICLE HOME 2 MILES AWAY. BUT INSTEAD, THEY ENDED UP STEALING AND SELLING OUR CAR TO A COLLISION SHOP BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT THAT THEY COULD CASH OUT ON USAA FOR STORAGE. THEY DECIDED TO ILLEGALLY HOLD OUR CAR FOR 38 DAYS WHILE THE COLLISION SHOP TRIED TO EXTORT ME AND USAA FOR $12,495 FOR STORAGE, TOWING, AND HAZARD FEES. THEY ENDED UP SWAPPING OUT CAR PARTS WITH A VEHICLE THAT THEY HAD ON THEIR PROPERTY JUST 1 YEAR NEWER. THEY ALSO GOT $2,495 BACK FOR WHAT THEY BOUGHT MY CAR FOR FROM THE TOW USING A FAKE INVOICE.
When this happened to our vehicle, which I'm still out here trying to fix and fight for every day, I was told by the State of Michigan that these two towing and collision companies have done this before. I was even emailed by the Michigan State Police, Sgt. Jackson, who said there are big loopholes. They also mentioned that there might not be anything they can do, but I can take them to civil court, which will cost a lot of money for a lawyer.
7 months after our car incident incident, my father called his insurance company to ask what they were going to do, as they had hired the tow truck. They replied to him that it is their problem and told him to move on. Six hours later, my father passed away from a heart attack, leaving it impossible for me to pay for his cremation. We lost everything that I had saved up to get my business going, which has failed because of our car accident.Leaving me to set up a Go Fund to ask for the $1380 that I needed to have my father cremated. That will forever hurt inside because my dad deserved so much better than what I was able to give him. Thank God for the donors because the V.A never sent out the $300 that they offered to go towards the $2,230 cremation. So while waiting to make my goal, which took 3 weeks, I was emailed by Eli Saslow who wanted to write a story about my father called "The Death Spiral of an American Family." The story by Eli in The Washington Post dropped on 03/22/2022
There were a lot of donors who donated money to me for my daughter Brionna's future because she was working 2 jobs. They just wanted to see her go back to school because she's only 17 and she needs to focus on her education. They wanted me to put the money in a savings account for when she graduates and I did. But for both my daughters. Est. graduation I put $10,000 in Brionna's account and $5,000 in Mariah's account because she is only in second grade. With the rest of the money that was donated to me, I paid off the back rent and paid 6 months in advance. I also paid for driver's education and I paid for Uber and Lyft rides for work while I fixed our car. Since I'm still struggling and instead of starting a new GoFundMe account and starting from scratch, I'm going to change my father's GFM and ask for help to get my family through these hard times and challenges that we are facing. Also, I have 263 donors on this account who have helped my daughter for when she graduates. Those donors deserve updates on how we are doing, which all of the updates that I made everyone can read them because there are more details on everything that I did with the donations.
. When the story dropped, everyone started to donate to my father's GFM for his cremation, and I received some emails from a few people telling me that I needed to shut it down because my father's cremation was paid. So, close it down. I was tired of receiving the rude emails from everyone, so I ended up turning off the donations, which I shouldn't have. The sad thing is, I didn't even know that I was receiving donations until Eli Saslow mentioned it to me in Messenger after the story dropped. I thought when I met my goal, it closed.
It bothers me that I allowed those people to pressure me into turning off the donation. I could have really used the funds that were coming in. I even tried to start another one, but everyone still donated to this GoFundMe.
The root of all my problems is not having a car. That started all of our problems for us. It changed everything. It caused my family and me to be in this situation. Without a car, I couldn't get back and forth to work. I also couldn't get Brionna back and forth to either one of her two jobs. I couldn't even get my 7-year-old Mariah to and from home, nor could I get her to her doctor's appointment. She has 6 disabilities, and she isn't receiving her disability anymore because I couldn't get her to her medical review when COVID 19 had everything shut down.
Because I had to use Ubers to get my family to all of those places we needed to go, it really accumulated to a lot of money. But I had no other choice because of no car. Above in the picture is just 5% of the rides that I paid for us to get around
That was another thing that caused my family to hit rock bottom. I even tried to rebuild the whole engine from top to bottom, and the car still isn't running. I put so much time and money into getting it working before the girls go back to school. They both start in 11 days, a couple of days before Mariah's 8th birthday. I'm already starting to get ulcers trying to figure out how I'm going to make sure I can get both to school. Brionna has to go to a school 2 cities away in Southgate. That is the only school in our area that is allowing her to go back to school and graduate on time because she is going to be 18 in January.
I'm a little more worried about my little one Mariah and how the school treated us last year. I had to pay $22+ a day every day to get her back and forth to school since Mariah would be late for her first hour. The school called CPS on me. Here are just 4 receipts for one-way trips only. This is what I paid to get Mariah to school. I have over 50+ receipts from Lyft and Uber. The school only.
Even though she met the requirements for receiving bus rides with her disabilities, the school would not approve us. I begged the school board almost every day to help us out with a bus, but they didn't when they could have. They ended up blaming me for the reason why my daughter was developing slowly in 1st grade, when delayed development is one of her disabilities. The school said it was because she was always late for her first hour. I was lucky I was able to get her there though.
I always seem to bounce back! But lately, I haven't really felt like I'm going to. I was working 2 jobs recently but got let go from one of them because the boss was unable to stay operating. I'm out here each day searching for a second job while working 12 to 16 hour shifts whenever I can, which isn't often. Because of this, I'm starting to lose everything due to our economy and inflation. Here are just a few bills that are due soon or shut off.
These past nine months have been difficult with his ridiculous rent and the high cost of living. Despite working two jobs and providing for my daughters, I am barely able to stay afloat. The landlord has raised the rent twice within a six-month period, and it has now reached $1475. However, I have still managed to pay it every month, even though it was extremely challenging. I even went into financial debt with my other bills to ensure that the rent was paid, resulting in multiple shutoffs and disconnections of my water, electricity, gas, and internet. Now, there is a strong possibility that my daughters and I will become homeless because every place I inquire about is either too expensive to move into or not yet available.
Organizer
David Ramsey
Organizer
Lincoln Park, MI