Help us get our home

My name is Gillian. I.am.A 73 year-old retired school!and public librarian. My husband was career Navy ,23 years in the Canoe Club. In 2008, we ended up.caring for my father, who could no longer live on his own. He bought a house. He required a co-signer. Once we passed we could no.longer afford the mortgage (retired ,living on his pension) and had to let it go into foreclosure. It ruined our credit and our lives. We couldn't even rent an unsafe apartment. We had no.place to.live down there in GA.

Friends gave us a place to.stay. With bad credit we could afford a decent place, and ended up.in an apartment that had been on Craig's List for 6 months because no one who.wasn't desperate would even look.at it, let alone rent it. In fact, when the heat died, he refused to.fix it and provided plug-in space heaters which keeled over after the first winter. We replaced them.necause his cheap ones tended to.die and didn't provide much warmth. In October,he announced he was putting it up.for sale.

We looked up.here but there are 5colleges in this area and low cost rentals don't exist. We looked into up.here but nothing is affordable. My husband had worked for Wal-Mart but lost his job due to.the pandemic, and Wal-Mart is the biggest employer in the area.

Where did our earlier refunds go?We hired movers. We checked them out and found no.complaints. Turns out the reason there weren't any is the state of FL had closed them.down for fraud and They just reopened under anew name. (they get your possessions, then refuse to.turn them.over until.you pay quadruple what they quoted. We lost everything we owned. All our furniture, anything that didn't fit into.two.suitcases and were left with our car and our cats. I.have no family photos. I even lost our love letters.

We slept on deflating air mattresses and the floor for a year which left me in agony because I have congenital back issues. It was a year before we could afford a mattress. Every refund since then has hone to replacing furniture and clothing. Bare necessities.

We found a small.house for sale in PA. The mortgage is less than rents up.here. We used our tax refund for the earnest money and other related expenses like appraisals and inspections. We need to pay for part of closing costs-- around 5 K.-' and.renting a moving van and miscellaneous expenses like a hotel for a few days and food and a refrigerator ( the house comes with a stove and dishwasher but no fridge.

We planned to.move two.years.down the road using our next two.tax refunds,but since we must be out by 5/30 we are running out of time just as we have run out of money.

Help an old Navy vet and his even older wife have a,place to live for the rest of our time. Doing everything right with my Dad screwed us over so.badly it has taken us ten years to.restore our credit and good name. Doing the right thing cost us everything. Help us find a safe place to.land. This small.house is the best deal.we can find, using his VA loan. We cannot even afford the first and last month's rent plus a third month for security deposit. If we lose this house we defend our 3 cats will.be living in our car.