Help Lynne Hansen Rebuild After Car Accident

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My name is Lynne Hansen and I'm a horror book cover artist who has been living out of her car for the last year. I am embarrassed and ashamed to be in this position. It’s hard to admit that I need help. But I do.

On October 9th, I was in a bad car accident in Atlanta, Georgia. Although I walked away with just bruises and injuries to my knees, my 11 year old Prius V was not so lucky.

I went over some railroad tracks, hit a patch of gravel, and over-corrected into a pole.

My car is totaled. It will cost me about $18,000 to get a similar vehicle, and the insurance company only gave me $7,400 for it, leaving me with a shortfall of $10,600.

This isn’t just a mode of transportation for me. It’s where I’ve been living for the last year as I traveled the country, visiting friends and making art from the road. I had just finished turning it into a camper so I could visit all 63 national parks while I worked. Now I am homeless AND carless.

Dear friends have offered to let me stay with them in New Zealand for 6 months starting in December, and I was thankfully able to use credit card miles to pay for the $2,000 flight.

Before I leave, I’ll have to rent a car for the next 6 weeks, and even with the Geico discount I was able to get, it will be $2,000.

I have mentally and physically been running on empty for the last year, and I am exhausted. This is just the most recent in a long string of challenges I’ve had since last fall. I’ve tried to stay positive during all of this and haven’t shared much of the negative stuff publicly, but since I'm asking for help, you deserve to know at least some of the highlights:

My ex-husband divorced me after 26 years without warning. Two close friends betrayed me as a result.
My former in-laws, who had been my family for 26 years, disowned me after promising to always stay in my life.
I struggled with severe depression and anxiety.
I had two brushes with suicide.
Several dear friends died.
I fell and injured both my legs multiple times while traveling. I may need a double knee replacement.
My only remaining immediate family member, my older brother, stopped speaking to me, then died unexpectedly after secretly changing his will to write me out of my parents’ inheritance, leaving me with nothing.
Because of this accident, I was unable to attend my first ever solo gallery show and a convention that would have boosted my income.

So far I have made it through all of this on my own, thanks to the support of my friends, but this accident has put me at the end of my rope. I need to take some time off to recover, reorganize, reboot, and reconfigure my life so I don’t ever find myself in this situation again. I am going to close my art business until March 1, 2025 in order to make that happen. Once in New Zealand, I won’t need much, but even $1,000 a month for the first four months would help me take that time off I need to be able to heal. After that, I will be able to reopen my business and start working again.

Here’s how this all breaks down:

$2,000 - Car rental until December

$10,600 - Car replacement

$4,000 - Help with transitional living expenses while recovering

$4,500 - Compensating for a refund I made to a friend who made a typo while donating (I refunded this money and GoFundMe won't reflect this in my total.)

$21,100 - TOTAL

I am 56 and am determined to thrive, regardless of what the universe sends my way. I have too much art I want to make, too many adventures I want to have, and too many amazing friends to share this time with. I have no choice but to persevere. Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated. #AdventureLynne