My Year of Hardship: Heartbreak, Bills, and a House Falling Apart

It has been almost 1 year since Sarah walked out the door. My heart still aches every single day. I have not written much about my personal life on this site in a long time. The last time was right after she left. Everything that could go wrong since then has gone wrong.

I live with a busted-up knee, a wrecked elbow, and a bad back that never lets me forget it. Job hunting for a full year while we were still together turned into 2 years of rejection. Every application seems to go nowhere. Delivery jobs keep getting filled by someone else. Warehouse work disappears before I even get a call back. If you get Amazon packages or any other deliveries at your door, you already know the competition is real.

Job Hunting and the Daily Grind of Rejection

I have applied to every delivery route I could find. The responses are the same. Positions fill fast. My body will not let me do heavy lifting or long hours on my feet without paying for it later. So I stay picky. That pickiness keeps me unemployed.

I tried building something on my own. A YouTube channel started strong. Roughly $1,000 a month came in. It helped. Then the revenue dropped significantly. The extra income vanished right when I needed it most.

Credit cards that once stayed manageable under the YouTube income now scream with interest. Collectors call several times a day. Every day. I am on social assistance. That covers the basics and nothing more. Without the food bank, the dogs and I would go hungry. Food bank visits across New Brunswick jumped 55%. Monthly visits hit around 50,000. Working people, pensioners, and families show up in greater numbers.

My summer gardening kept us afloat for a while. Vegetable plants and flowers sold well enough to pay several months of rent in advance. That buffer ends this September. Monthly rent payments start again with no extra income in sight.

House Falling Apart After the Breakup

Things fell apart at home once Sarah was gone. First, the power to the porch quit. No idea where the previous owner tied it in. That line runs the deep freezer, security cameras, outdoor lights, and greenhouse fans. Now an extension cord snakes through the front door to keep everything alive.

A powerful windstorm finished the street light and ripped the gazebo apart. One leg punched through the hallway window. Tuck Tape holds it together. Red stained-glass look. Fancy, right?

Princess, my dog, developed dry eye in her right eye. She needs monthly gel. $40 a tube. She needs grooming badly. I cannot bathe her properly because of the mess under the house. Katie’s nails grow long. I am terrified of cutting them too short. Sarah used to handle that with skill.

Then the sewer line froze in mid-November. The toilet drained slower and slower. I called Freemans. The first tech pulled the toilet, ran the power auger for 30-40 minutes, and poured Drano. He left the toilet crooked. Water backed up. I scooped it into the bathtub. Days of no reply followed. I was using a bucket.

The toilet sits sideways on the floor and leaks from the tank. Every single day I empty a pan of water 2 times. More daily misery piled on top of the frozen pipe. I called the main line. They sent a young pair. They insisted on the auger again. 45 minutes later, nothing. We pulled the skirting. The young woman yanked the pipe where it met the park main like she was shaking out the last drops. I told them to cut the frozen section and replace it. The young guy claimed 5 or 6 hours. I shut it down. No bill ever arrived. 6 months of silence.

A septic service later showed me the real problem. A V-shaped bend held water that froze. They suggested heat instead of a $500 machine run. Honest workers at Maritime Environmental. A space heater seemed to clear it. Or so I thought.

Sewage Under the House and the Grant That Cannot Move

Months later, a contractor for the New Brunswick Homeowner Repair Program looked under the trailer. The sewer line had completely detached. That is why Freemans never followed up. Their augering and yanking broke it off. The space heater did not thaw anything. The pipe fell away. Sewage now sits under the house.

The contractor said call the Ministry of Environment for sign-off before remediation. Simple on paper. Impossible in practice. 2 months of calls to every restoration company produced silence or ghosting. Maritime Environmental could not take it. One Side Restoration, PuroClean, First General, Emergency Response Group, First Onsite, Clean Earth, GFL. Jeff at GFL promised action, needed Housing NB contact, then vanished. WinMar said mid-August at earliest. I am calling them again.

The Homeowner Repair Program offers forgivable loans up to $18,000 for major repairs on low-income homes. Structural, electrical, plumbing, and accessibility work qualify. Approval came through. Contractors cannot start until the sewage mess is cleaned and signed off. The grant sits useless while the mess spreads.

I am broke. Unemployed. On anti-depression pills, blood pressure pills, and cholesterol pills. My body is pretty much wrecked. The past year has been pure hardship. Ordinary days turn into constant battles with money, repairs, and health.

I have more to get off my chest. Plenty of people will relate. Subscribe to the newsletter so you never miss the next one. See you next time. Cheers.

❓FAQ