I am so sad

[u/DrFredz]

I am just so sad. In short, I saved up all my life and sacrificed everything I could until the age of 38 and opened a restaurant right before COVID hit. Long story short, restaurant is sold at a major loss, life savings gone and I just put up my family home for sale to pay off my debts, will be renting because my credit is shot. Will have to take my autistic son out of his private school and put him in a crappy public school. Marriage took a major hit and I’m not sure if we’ll come out of it ok. I’m out of a job and feel like I can’t work anymore, yet I cannot afford even a week without any income.

I’ve been crying all day and I can’t stop. I’m so sad my heart physically aches. I can’t sleep and cannot hold back my tears and sadness. I know everyone will say stuff like “stay strong” and “it’ll get better” or “there are others that have it worse”, but for me, since the age of 16, I have dedicated every second of every day, made so many sacrifices and suffered so much to get somewhere where I could lead a good life and leave something good for my kids when I’m gone, only to end up with such an outcome. I am destroyed and hurting so much.

I lost hope. I was always positive even when times were hard. I always believed hard work and sacrifices will eventually pay off. I always believed that if I do good I will eventually reap the benefits. I have always tried to be kind, generous, helpful and compassionate with everyone I encountered, no matter who they were. I was religious and believed I will be rewarded for my efforts. I was wrong all along and it really really really hurts to hit the wall and find out all of it was in vain.

I’m not sure what I’m looking for by posting this but I hope to feel even a little better after putting it out there. Thanks for reading me and good luck to everyone out there, life is unfair and cruel.

[u/indiajeweljax]

I’m sorry for your situation.

Can you open a dark kitchen and sell delivery-only food on Uber Eats, Deliveroo, etc…?

[u/DrFredz → u/indiajeweljax]

I am considering this but for now I don’t have enough money to proceed. I can probably pull it off once the house is sold but I’m also scared not being able to generate enough revenue to pay the bills…I have a wife and 3 kids to take care of and already put them through so much…

[u/yurrm0mm → u/DrFredz]

Reach out to your local community action network, they’re extremely helpful with guiding thru hardships and assistance. I never had much after incurring a LARGE amount of student loan debt, but it took me way to long to just talk to social services and they were extremely helpful very quickly. There are a lot of programs out there to explore. Good luck!

[u/DrFredz → u/yurrm0mm]

Will do, thank you so much