Paint the scene: At around 5AM on 1/26/26, during the unprecedented ice storm in Tennessee that caused a widespread tree-pocalypse - trees terrifyingly snapping under the weight of ice onto so many people’s homes and other property, power lines, and roads everywhere - I was sitting in my bed, luckily still awake talking to a friend I play games on my phone with, because suddenly a tree falls through my ceiling practically into my lap. Almost comically calm as I am in emergencies (in contrast to the constant anxiety when literally nothing is happening), my first reaction was to yell to my fiancé in the living room if HE was okay. I make my way through the wreckage and plainly state, “This is bad. This is really bad,” before revealing a decimated ceiling and large tree branch in the middle of our room.

We have 7 cats, and miraculously, none were in the room with me or harmed during the incident, likely hearing the initial snap and being spooked enough by that. It took awhile to gather all the scared little babies into carriers and then longer to find a place we could go that wouldn’t force us to leave our precious babies alone in the conditions that ended up killing multiple people, plus a way to get there since it was impossible to get vehicles out of any driveways in our neighborhood. I listened to people trying very hard for hours. I was awake for about 48 hours, the longest I’d ever been by far, trying to make sure I found somewhere for all of us. I am chronically physically and mentally ill, so that has taken a long time to recover from.

Finally, a start: I came across an article about warming shelters that were accepting pets, and my fiancé finally found someone to pick us up and take us with our babies after many options fell through. I was losing hope, ready to resign to being stuck in my house with a tree inside it, but I would do anything to protect my babies. The shelter had kind people and a lot of space, plus food and drinks and cots and a blanket, but it was still strangely cold for a “warming” shelter. I was shivering under the blanket they provided, and I typically run hot. Plus our babies had been confined to carriers for way too long and couldn’t understand that it was better than being seriously injured or dead. I felt like I was neglecting them and hated myself for it.

Finally, my parents were able to make the hour trip out to rescue us. All 9 of us cats and humans are staying in this room in their basement and very lucky to have this option over being on the streets, but we need to replace our home. My fiancé said insurance decided it’s a total loss, and we will receive about $16,000 for it. We own the land and are hoping to remove the trailer from the property and replace it with a new one. I have no idea how much the tree removal and hauling off our destroyed home is yet, but my fiancé has also informed me that what he’s seeing regarding having a new trailer built looks to be about $56,000. We also need to find a place to store all our belongings.

We both recently lost our different jobs at a horribly run, failing company and have been scrambling to get our lives back together up until this happened, my fiancé finding that he can make better money than he was delivering with Uber for now, and as for me, after many failed job interviews in an over-saturated job market I am so not adapted to being from the suburbs, I resolved to go back to school to try to finish my Bachelor’s in psychology and hopefully have enough financial aid to help with living expenses, though loans are terrifying to me. Another thing that’s terrifying to me is having long term payments to be able to have a place to live due to my history of job insecurity because of the aforementioned chronic illnesses. We were incredibly lucky to have a place to live that was already paid off so we didn’t face the threat of homelessness sooner.

We can’t stay with my parents forever. We are actually staying in what is used as my teenage step-sister’s room. She primarily lives with her mom, but I do not like intruding in her space and likely preventing my siblings from being able to come here due to taking up the limited space that’s used for all 3 siblings I have that use this place as their home too. Obviously I don’t expect to receive the full amount for a new home, just offering an honest number that we are looking at.

I could elaborate further on the unbelievable string of misfortunes I’ve experienced consistently since 2024 - pretty much anything you can think of, it’s happened - but I know this is already way too long. I am a writer, a storyteller and like being completely transparent, and I am deeply grateful for anyone who has humored me this far. It feels very strange and uncomfortable for me to attempt to use a service like this because I have always been and always will be the helper, even at my own expense, but I know it’s important to be able to ask for help too.