Scott Lotan Needs Your Help

Hi, my name is Iain, and I am fundraising for my brother Scott Lotan whose house was destroyed by a fire. Scott wanted to share the following statement

Title: Once again, I escaped death.

Probably the first time, I was maybe eight and fell into a frozen river. It dumps into the North Atlantic at the furthest point north of Scotland. I popped up a quarter mile downstream. I have no idea how I survived.

I was diagnosed with Multiple sclerosis in 2001. All I knew was that something was wrong with my brain. I had no idea what was going to happen to me. That's when the laughter started. Fast forward to August 23rd, 2003, my father's birthday and my engagement party to the most beautiful woman in the world. We're heading home. My mother was driving six blocks away from the house when we were broadsided at 65 mph by a drunk driver. I was the only one who survived in that car; I'll never know how or why. For the next two weeks, I'd walk around with missing teeth, an unshaven face, just a total wreck but laughing. With the laughter comes being ostracized, especially when you're at your fiancé's and your mother's funeral, and you must hide from people.

Life moved on, and I started a beautiful family two years later. Yeah, things happen. Divorced in 2013ish, I winded up being a single dad taking care of the kids and remaking my life over again. Luckily, I again ran into the most beautiful woman in the world (Mindy, my better half, SUPER Wife, Mother, and friend). We started the family up to include Auntie Barbara, who had been with the children since they were born, and she has always been my rock, the guardian for the children.

Auntie Barbara and I recently battled COVID while Mindy single handily ran the family, ensuring all would end well. We're in the adjacent pool house next to the house that burned down for 10 days in quarantine away from our family, So over this past weekend, I was cleared to go ahead and get my infusion required for my MS treatment which lowers my immune system and puts me more at risk due to the required steroids along with infusion, I was up most of the night, so I didn't really get any sleep. I was upstairs in the office attending meetings when the fire broke out; I ran downstairs. I found Mindy just getting out of the shower as I saw what was happening in the garage. Mindy grabbed the closest thing to cover herself, and then she had to run outside. I ran up upstairs and grabbed the kids.

I got them out as fast as possible and got the pugs out. We were going to be safe; while we were in relative safety, Auntie Barbara was in the backyard with a garden hose trying to fight the fire. Probably one of the bravest people I've ever known. So, we are looking for donations to try and put our lives together. It's not just us; Auntie Barbara's displaced as well. She's lost everything. We're all separated now. I must say, with all the troubled times I've had over the years. I've always known how to get through the hell that seems forever at my doorstep. You have to be in good mental health, so I'll use her first name. Kim (Therapist extraordinaire), I'll be calling you.

So, if you can find it in your heart, not only for my immediate family but for Auntie Barbara. All donations can do nothing but help us rebuild. Counseling costs money, clothing costs, and roofs over our heads for the unforeseen future costs' as we still pay the mortgage on the house that cannot provide shelter. Everything costs money Right now. We're in immediate need.

Please help wherever you can.

Thanks so much.

Scott, Mindy, Judah, and Helen Lotan

and on behalf of the best Auntie in the World, Barbara Guinn.