Help Kasey and Family Move Out of Florida

Hi, I’m Kasey, but most of you online probably know me as “Kitty-tama”. I’ve been living in Florida for most of my life the past 20-ish years, and for about 18 of those, along with mom, dad, and my siblings, we’ve been living with grandma and Poppy (our grandpa). Ever since grandma died, Poppy has been verbally abusive to us as well as controlling to such an extent that just existing has been a stressful and very difficult feat. We want to finally have a life worth living in a place we can call home. Florida isn’t home—we have our sights set on West Virginia.

We originally moved into grandma and Poppy’s house to help take care of grandma, who had been quite sickly. We did our best to look after her, but she suddenly passed away June 23rd 2021. Life hasn’t been the same since. Grandma was in part our rock, helping us to pay for groceries and bills. Her passing was a major turning point in our lives, and one that we’re still quite frankly recovering from in many respects.

Poppy hasn’t been very kind to us. He’s keen on constantly criticizing every little thing we do, and any time he is nice to us, it’s not long before the rug is pulled from under us. Additionally, he’s consistently been telling horrible lies about us to our extended family living here in Florida, so we lack any kind of support system or community outside of relying on each other for everything.

Mom is also disabled and sickly herself, many of her conditions worsened due to the impact of the constant stress she’s under as a result of Poppy’s harsh words toward her and the lies he spreads to other family living here. She’s been quite depressed as a result of this as well as grandma’s death, and I want nothing more than to give her the peace of mind she deserves. She doesn’t deserve to live under constant tyranny just because we’re here, trying to support Poppy and also care for ourselves at the same time. Living with family isn’t a sin, and I to this day don’t understand why Poppy is so cruel to us about this. We handle all the bills and such ourselves; frankly, without us, he would crumble.

Crumbling is also how I’d describe my mental health as a result of living under the near constant stress that comes with existing under such a commanding roof. I’ve barely had friends come visit because Poppy can’t stand it when people swing by. It’s quite isolating and not to mention lonely. Everything has to go his way or it’s not good enough, meaning that no matter how hard I try to keep the peace at home with cleaning, helping out pay bills, you name it, he doesn’t relent in maintaining control. I’ve been living in a small bedroom with my siblings, and mom and dad live in the bedroom across from it, which is also on the small side. I get access to the kitchen to cook dinner, but we aren’t really able to spend time in the living room due to Poppy hogging it all for himself. It’s immensely frustrating, but we’ve been just barely living our lives between two small, crammed bedrooms. I want us to truly live, to experience a more peaceful life that I know we’re deserving of. One where we can hang out in the living room freely and have wider spaces to relax, while still having bedrooms to go to when we’re tired or just want some quiet time to ourselves.

Enough is enough, and I finally have the courage to ask for something I’ve hesitated for way too long to ask help for: we need to move out of Florida, away from this house and Poppy, and we need your help to do so. We want to move out sometime around August, although there is wiggle room in this regard, and we’re currently looking at houses that we’d like to move into. I’ve estimated my goal cost based on the general price point range the houses we’ve seen and loved are priced at, as well as the cost of moving trucks and other necessities, to ensure we can truly have a space to call our own.

This is very important not only to me, but to my mom, dad, and siblings, who all want to have a peaceful, less stressful life we can call ours, truly ours, with no conditions tied to it. We’ve been through the wringer too many times now, and we’re ready to leave Florida and start living for ourselves, not the approval of cruel “family” who couldn’t care less about us. By moving to West Virginia, we’ll be surrounded by friends and family who truly have our backs in person. We don’t have that right now. We only have each other. This is a big, perhaps scary step in life to take, but it’s very necessary, and it’s one that will provide much mental clarity and joy to us in the long run. With your support, we can make this dream a reality. Our golden ticket to truly begin living life as it was meant to be lived. Every dollar and share helps. Thank you.