Jen's Single Mom/Teacher’s FMLA Paycut & Emergency Rent Relief

Many of you know on April 21, I was walking down my stairs in my home, missed a step and fell very hard on my left-side and very ungracefully fell into my dog's gate in the middle of the stairs. Annabelle helped me up and I went to bed thinking I would wake up and go to work the next day with some bad bruising but be otherwise functional. This was not the case. Once I got into bed, I couldn't stand and was in the worst pain I've had in my life (including childbirth). Finally, my stubborn self had to call 911 for myself so that EMS could get me down the stairs and to the hospital. After an x-ray, CT scan and MRI, the results showed a broken femur near my hip (greater trochanter), lots of swelling and tears to my tendons in my hip and glutes. I spent three days in the hospital and ended up not having surgery as the orthopedic team decided I didn't need it as the break didn't go all the way through. When I came home, I could barely walk and fortunately with good health insurance, I was able to have home PT, OT and a home health nurse. I stayed downstairs for 19 days as I wasn't mobile enough to walk up stairs. Thankfully, I had help from Annabelle and August's grandmother who came from New Orleans to drive the kids to and from school (we live 40 minutes from school since the kids go to school where I teach and not our neighborhood school). One of the issues with being a single parent (their Dad lives 90 minutes away) is that whenever the kids are sick, have appointments, or I'm sick or have appointments, I have to take off sick time. When I fell and broke my femur, I didn't have but three sick hours reserved. I had to take 17 days of unpaid FMLA leave. Unfortunately, my short term disability benefit I pay for didn't kick in until 45 days of unpaid leave. I definitely couldn't afford to go that long without pay and what's more is that my last day of work before summer was 5/22. I asked someone in the Leave department if I went back to work, would that ensure my full summer pay and she said "yes." She was wrong. My payroll department assuming I wasn't coming back reconfigured my contract subtracting 24 days and dumped all my summer pay into one paycheck in May resulting in a huge tax(my one paycheck made it appear that I was in the 300k salary range). I also lost days of my supplement for an extra teaching responsibility at work. I ended up speaking to a lawyer at my teacher's union who had a CPA examine my pay deficit. We found one more day in error that I wasn't paid for and they corrected the 24 days to 17 days and then I received that on June 30. By the end of May, I had a $1000 paycheck and then in the middle of June, I had a $35 paycheck and finally end of June, they paid me for their mistake adding in the extra day and after taxes, I had a $400 paycheck. My remaining paychecks in July will be $35 each as once they subtract our family's benefits (health/vision/dental/FSA/retirement), that's all that's left. For 10 weeks, I will net $1,505. This is obviously not enough to pay rent on my townhouse, utilities, wifi, food, cell phones and essentials. Annabelle took three semesters of summer classes that cost $650 in tuition that she needed to begin junior year next year. She's also volunteering and doing an internship at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens so I'm back and forth driving her 3-4 times a week. Overall, with the loss of wages and the huge tax in my summer dump paycheck, I have lost $11,000. I will not get a normal paycheck until August 15. I return to work on July 27. I usually work in the summer and I wasn't able to complete my 10 hours of virtual training for teaching virtually this summer so lost this opportunity of making up some of this money. I have applied for PT remote work and haven't found anything but I'm continuing to search. I wish I could tell you that I have a huge savings account. I do not and haven't had the ability to save much of anything in my profession raising two children. This is another reason I'm exploring Ed-Tech jobs and have redone my resume so that I can make more money and get both Annabelle and August through college and stop being in survival mode. It makes me feel beyond cringy to ask for help from my friends and family. Money has been a source of shame for me as a divorced teacher as there never seems to be enough but by being resourceful, having at least two jobs the majority of my children's lives and doing the best I can as their parent, we have managed in tough financial times. Even this summer, we have mainly stayed home as the kids know we cannot do vacations (except to Florida to visit Mimi soon and me to NYC/NJ because of my generous, fabulous boyfriend), go to the movies, or spend any money. We have gone to the pool at friends' houses, watched a lot of movies, grilled on our deck, planted and gardened and enjoyed each other's company. I can offer the following for any bit of financial help (every little bit will help us get to the middle of August): tutoring in person (if local) or virtually for college admissions (one of my super talents is college admission essays), AP Lang/Lit. tutoring, study skills, reading tutoring, ADHD Executive Functioning coaching or any help you might need cleaning and organizing your home (if local) or any needs you may have. I'm here for all of it. I am now 10 weeks out from my break and I'm starting to walk without limping -- no more walker or cane and with the help of my PT who pushes me every session, I'm getting stronger and feeling so much better. If you have read all of this, please know I appreciate you. If you can't help financially, I absolutely understand -- in lieu of support, please just send us positive prayers and affirmations. Thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart, Jen