Greetings!  Allow me to “Thank You” in advance for taking your time to read my plea.  I trust the fact you’re reading this means you already know the nature of this web-site.  Because this page is the only opportunity I have to convince you to donate and I firmly believe you deserve to know why, I would like to tell you my story.  Admittedly it’s kind of long but it had many years to develop.  In keeping with the spirit of business and the premiss of putting “the bottom line up front”, I am asking for your voluntary offer of cash to help me pay back close to $117,000 dollars in personal debt.  Debt which I am responsible for but did NOT create!!  I am not a “dead beat” with a money management problem, I do not believe anyone is responsible for the care of another, and I take full responsibility for this debt.

Let me begin by quoting two persons I respect and have actually met in my life time;  Dr. Martin Luther King, who once said , “While Pity represents little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, it is True Sympathy which is a very personal concern demanding the giving of one's soul.”  And Werner Erhard, of the Seminars Training fame (born John Rosenberg) who once said, “We are all responsible for everything that happens to us, and we are all perfect just the way we are.”  I have a strong sense of what each of these two men intended by their words and I have done my best to live my life according to their sage advice.  While I am not asking for your soul, nor do I wish for you to take responsibility for my life, I am in desperate need of your help.  With that said, here is my story.  Please bear with me.

Soon after I retired from the military I got the shock of my life!  I discovered my wife of 28 years was in the habit of allowing our common household bills to go unpaid for long periods of time.  The investments and life insurance I had set in place for our children years past was also all gone.  I thought perhaps gambling was the culprit, or maybe she took a lover.  My wife and I had a very long and in-depth conversation about this situation and absolutely nothing was discovered.  Nothing except, while she readily accepted what I could do for the family, she would simply prefer that I did this from a place other than home.  Needless to say I was “blind sided” and outraged!  This was my home too!  In fact, I  bought it for our family, I made the mortgage payments, I worked hard on this house to put our family in it!  How dare she even hint of such a demand?  We decided we should separate and talk again with clearer and calmer heads.  We did exactly that and 7 years passed, we had amicably separated.  Today I regret that decision.

During my 20 years service on active duty I was not a “front line” combat soldier.  I worked in a very competitive, extremely complicated, and rather specialized field.  As a family team we raised three independent, productive, drug free, members of society and I’m very proud of our children!  I would like to believe I had at least something to do with that.  Being in the US military we didn’t moved as regularly as most but we’ve lived in various places throughout the free world.  Rasing our family was not always easy but I always thought of myself as a good provider and my wife as my life partner.  We were, after all, a team!  During my military career I bought and sold four houses for my family to live in rather than live on-base, a decision I will never regret.  Each house got its kitchen re-designed by my wife for her use and was re-built.  My wife and I each had our own cars and we had the usual stuff, in fact, each child had their own stuff too.  While we didn’t always have “branded” stuff we certainly had nice clothes, plenty of good food, and the usual quality kitchen and major appliances.  Sometimes our house was messy.  

I have always felt life insurance was very important and I went about setting up other cash producing investments for my family as well.  One such investment with Twenty-first Century was just a bit under $10,000 dollars for just one minor child, and we had three!  It was I who exposed our children to the arts, live theater and music concerts, different ideas like horses, fishing, sailing, nature, golf, as well as other people.  My girls actually loved to go out with their dad!  And, yes, I was proud.  Whenever one of our girls was involved in an activity I, like any naturally proud parent, recorded them on VHS tape only to give these recordings to them years later.  I convinced my wife, with the help and enthusiasm of our oldest daughter who was a Regents student in high school, to sponsor a Foreign Exchange Student!  

It turned out to be a really good experience and our daughter was so very pleased!  They remain good friends to this day.  I did my level best (and still do) to support everything they want to do, I only want them to have it better than I did.  Now for the “rub”;  my wife hated the fact I drank and, while I respected her views, I disagreed with them.  In my mind I was merely socializing and taking a breather, I was always in compliance with the common-sense and legal rules, except hers.  She also didn’t care for my boating and golfing, but that’s another story.  Noteworthy is the fact that at no time, nor in any way, did I ever have a problem caused by my drinking, either professionally, personally, or ever!!  If not for the anonymity here I would say you can go and ask my kids!

After the separation from my wife I went to school and learned to drive a “big truck” over the road.  It was an “ok” job with a decent income and, more importantly, I was gone more than I was home.  Hundreds of dollars of my pay went to her every week to support our kids living at home.  While I lived in my truck I soon learned a good deal more than I dared dream.  Our eldest moved out right after the separation and since graduated from college, she moved to a foreign country and has a great career, the younger two quit high school.  During one particular weekend when I returned home “the wife” brought up the subject of a formal divorce.  I was taken aback but I didn’t agree.  I felt it best she should keep her medical benefits from the military since a formal divorce would mean she would lose them, and she had a common chronic medical issue.  The minor children living at home would still have been covered.  To achieve that end we merely separated with a verbal “understanding”, and as I said above, I have come to regret that decision.  I came to enjoy driving over the road less and less and eventually quit.  I moved to a tropical paradise and took odd jobs.  

Eventually I became a DOT Crewman on a barge.  I found paradise to actually be very affordable and the pace of life was much more to my liking.  I was doing “ok” and kept in touch with our kids.  Through the two yonger children I learned my wife was living in her car at a welcome center!  Neither child was in a position to help their mother.  I just couldn’t allow that, we’re talking about the mother of my children!  I returned to help her get back on her feet.  Not being “of means” myself I had to sell everything I owned, my car, my little condo apartment, my tools, my sailboat, everything.  To move back here I even quit my job!  This is when I discovered that shock I mentioned earlier.  I found out she gave our last home away (a 161 year old traditional Victorian in up state NY that was trashed and re-habbed by me for over four years) for free!  Yep, I said free!!  She told me she literally gave it away!  Talk about depressed!  Of course I knew the house was “gone” but I just thought she was compensated and merely kept the money, I didn’t know.  

I also learned I bought cars which had been repossessed, had legal evictions and warrants issued for un-paid rents, un-paid power and phone bills, un-paid cable TV, emergency room medical fees, Visa and Master Cards, revolving store credit accounts, all which were created by her using my name!  She was still legally my wife and during my six year absence apparently, and unbeknownst to me, plunged my credit into a total shamble.  I also learned (discovered actually when I was summoned by the IRS!) she included me on her Federal Income Tax filings.  Wonderful!  As I said above, I am now approximately $117,000 dollars in debt.  If it weren’t for our kids telling me about her living in her car I would have never known any of this!  Often times I think I would’ve been better off not knowing!  I think I’ve learned the lesson that some people are just beyond saving and beyond help, I want only to clean MY slate.  Having said that, I need your help.

I’m now fairly “advanced” in my years and, unfortunately, getting a decent job to right these wrongs seems virtually impossible, not in today’s economy.  I am also ashamed to admit wisdom does not necessarily come with age, and I prefer to say I just misplaced my trust.  While I have been given some money from some friends, and it helps, it simply is not enough as they aren’t wealthy either.  I do not wish to be a burden, especially to my children, and have kept my life insurance current.  I am, emotionally, at the end of my rope and have turned to donatemoney2me dot com as a desperate and last resort.  I have never begged for anything in my entire life!  I can only say thank you and let you know I appreciate any help you can afford to give me.  I whole heatedly promise to “donate forward” to help anyone I can, for I know I’m not alone.  And at the risk of tooting my horn for my own cause, bad things really do happen to good people.  Thank you!

ps;  If a man of “advanced age” approaches you and you have a job and you can give it, do so generously.  He probably needs it!  I know I do.  Thank you again for reading.  I hope you can see your way clear, no matter the amount, to help me.  I know you don’t have to!