Paul Voth’s sons: Austin, Ashton and Caleb

My sons lost their father on our oldest son, Austin’s 19th birthday. Paul and I were married for 15 years. We have 3 incredible sons: Austin (19), Ashton (16), and Caleb (11). Even though we broke up, we always put our kids above all, to raise them in love, full support of each other and co-parented with a good friendship. Paul was a fantastic dad, great friend, hard worker, he was generous and kind hearted. He helped others and Paul wanted me to be a stay-at-home-mom to raise our sons and be there for them. We supported each other. We were friends. Now that he’s passed I am left to navigate this world for our sons without him in it. I never thought this day would come. He has been working so much lately and so stressed, a person can only do so much. There are so many loose ends for me to tie up to bring my kids a new normalcy. Our home needs work….a lot of work. Paul worked a tough job, long hours and switched from days to nights all the time. He didn’t have the time to keep up with the yards and hadn’t finished fixing the bathroom he had demolished. He was a huge hobbyist and had many, many things that he had collected that we will need to sort through. I was just starting back at school, trying to prepare to enter nursing school because I haven’t had a full time job since I had Austin. My college degree is a relic since it was in marketing before the internet. I’m a part-time substitute teacher. The kids had their insurance through Paul. Austin started college and Ashton will be right behind him. I need to finish school or find a job that will pay all of the upcoming bills that will be pouring in. I’ve had many people ask how to help and if I had a Go Fund Me. I am a fixer and a doer. I am the helper, not the helpee. As I write this I just am not sure how I will be able to accomplish the things that need to be done without help. I never thought in a million years we’d be here….