It's funny too, cause in the "media" they say how they're offering all this "COVID relief" and working with people, and helping people, but is that the reality? In my reality, that wasn't the reality. I did get a stimulus for myself and two kids which I'm very thankful for. But here's what really happened to me this year...my reality and my experience.
Maybe others were able to get help. But not only was I not able to get help and climbed out of the hell hole of a situation myself that I fell into by clawing my way out, but I was sued twice and audited twice on top of that. Let's get into it, shall we?? Okay. So let's go back to spring of 2020, when the s**t hit the fan globally and everything starts shutting down.
Schools closed for "two weeks" mid-march here in New York, then suddenly just as quickly as the schools were closing, the news made it seem like certain death in the New York hospitals if you got sick with COVID. If you had COVID like symptoms in the very beginning, you were s**t out of luck because your doctor's office was now closed and would only see you over the telephone, not even web visits initially.
And there was no testing right off the bat, and then the first testing when it was available was shotty and unreliable. Myself and two of my adult sons were down in NYC just as COVID was exploding in the city, only no one knew yet. We had two appointments at NYU. So then on top of that, one of my sons, one of these two, had also been down in Miami for a week around the time the s**t started hitting the fan.
I told him not to go but he's an adult and it was something special planned from back in December after a rough year. He was not canceling and no one really knew what was going on. I'm being super careful, but we all get sick. No idea if it was from when we were at NYU, or him being in Miami. I also have a sharp memory of a lady standing next to me at the pharmacy when I was there to pick up my daughter's inhaler and she's telling the pharmacist that she was up from the city and she was right next to me.
Could have been at the grocery store too - who knows? But we all got sick and it was definitely respiratory illness. Three of us were the sickest. I counted and I was literally the worst of it for seven to eight weeks. The first week to two weeks I could barely sit up straight or talk for long without feeling winded.
It was scary stuff. We got through it though because I'm an herb ninja, okay. It literally is every man and woman for themselves, especially at that time. I whipped out everything natural under the sun that's antiviral and antiinflammatory and we got better.
But while getting sick, I lost time from work and fell behind. I tried working through this even the first week when I was my absolute worst till I literally had to listen to my body or else it would have been certain death. I only made $62 that week... The next week, I worked maybe three days here and there when I could, then as soon as I felt winded I'd leave my desk.
Each week it got better. Had some setbacks. Also had a couple very scary moments where I was honestly afraid for my life. I even put together notebooks of special family recipes for my sons in case anything happened to me - I really did and that took me time because I felt winded doing it and had to do it here and there.
With all of that said, here we are going through this nightmare and my girls are homeschooling, which at first the schools really struggled with getting the kids adjusted. But on top of all this...the threats start coming in. So I took the little bit I had coming in and made sure I paid in order of threat level priority and I fed my children - utilities were the most immediate cause they can turn those off.
Even though they said they were "working with people" they were still threatening and I didn't take a chance. So I paid them. I fell behind three months with my landlord but thankfully they put the moratoriums into place to prevent eviction, but he sure wanted to put me out. He wasn't working with me, put my stomach in a knot every month.
As soon as I got better, I started to work on getting caught back up as best as I could. But it took time because I wasn't making as much as I normally would with my girls home schooling. By the fall I was three quarters of the way caught up with my landlord and by February of this year I was completely caught up with him, including water bills as well.
It was March of 2020 I had my first letter of a tax issue. But they gave me time and we straightened that out by the end of the year. It was an issue from my 2018 return. Then fast forward...I do my 2020 taxes and now New York was holding up my refund because they see what happened with my federal which was then straightened out. Meanwhile, I'm seriously just a little fish, a nobody.
Just a single mom doing her best barely getting by without handouts and you've got billionaires who shall remain nameless that go, what, ten years of not paying taxes supposedly. It was literally an honest mistake that was straightened out. So now New York is going extra hard on me to prove this and that, including proving my daughters are my daughters...I've been claiming them for 11 years and now this year during a pandemic and when they have "COVID relief for New Yorkers" plastered on their tax website they're asking me to prove they're mine.
So I do all of that and get them other documentation they needed. Good, I'm thinking. My 1099 should be sufficient, I'm thinking. Wrong. No. They gave me this tiny refund back and want bank statements now and other things, which I'm providing. No problem providing that. But why is my question, why now? The time couldn't be anymore WRONG to hurt someone that's already been through so much this year.
At the SAME EXACT TIME I was served with court papers by my car's lien holder. Up till "COVID" I had been paying on my car just fine for over two years. After I got sick I fell behind in my car payments. At first the bank worked with me, but the car was no longer a priority. My priorities were: LANDLORD, UTILITIES, AND FOOD. I was forced to sacrifice my car.
I was making less and the car does not feed us and we were okay without it for now. Long story short...bank stopped working with me last fall. June of 2020 the car wouldn't pass inspection. Needed $2,500 worth of work. I was sold a lemon. I did regular oil changes, wasn't that, and didn't drive it much because I work from home anyway, just normal running around I did with it for kids, store, appointments, family, etc.
So anyway, I was told when I got the car it was a "sensor," then last June my mechanic tells me it needs all this work to pass inspection. So fast forward again...to the fall. The bank is offering me this "COVID" relief program but I have to get them x, y, and z by such-and-such date and time. I get it to them on the date but literally just TWO HOURS LATE and for good reason.
I had a loved one in the hospital, which I will not get into. So I explain all of this and nope, we don't care. Now, we're going to sue you during a pandemic. So I said good luck with that, the courts aren't even open yet. 😝 But they waited till they were like the evil vile bank that they are. Forgot to add that they didn't want the car. I told them I took it off the road in October and to come get it, which I have proof of, and they didn't want it cause of the engine issues.
Then I get second opinion from another mechanic recently to see if it's worth fixing since I'm stuck with the d**n thing and the guy tells me the engine has now seized on the car...and just last week I was served with court papers for this worthless lemon car. Goody, goody gum drops, lucky me, audited and sued all at the same time! Lucky for me, I'M A STRONG PERSON - BRING IT.
At the end of the day, I'm not worried. It's just sad really and a waste of time. Now I have to take time from work to pull 52 weeks of pay reports, which is time consuming for what? It's just not right to put anyone through this right now. People are going through enough as it is..."COVID relief," pfft, oh, and I never qualified for their rental assistance last year either...such a joke.
I worked my way out of the poverty I was raised in from my living room over ten years ago. But you know what, they want you poor. They want you IN THE SYSTEM. This too shall pass...I know it will. This was so long that I just realized I left out the douche bag 😂 that tried suing me for a car accident from two years ago involving one of my sons' who was on my insurance at the time.
My son took full responsibility right from the jump. The guy was literally fine. No ambulance, said he was fine on scene, driveable cars, then almost two years later we get sued during COVID. Come to find out too that he was the boyfriend of a distant relative, odds, right. We found out the injury he was claiming was really from things he did in his free time and he thought he was gonna get a free ride 🤑 on us during a pandemic - people are so dirty.
The same son had two other accidents where the other drivers were at fault and found at fault by their own insurance companies and they settled but there was no injury cause my son wasn't hurt and he's not that type. The one was head on too and he never went to the hospital even though I thought he should have at least got checked out. But he said he was fine and he's not that way to milk a minor injury for a big settlement. People...🤪
With Love,
Carmen
No comments:
Post a Comment