This is my real story. No filter. No excuses. Just truth.
We have jobs starting in January and February, but right now we're in the gap. Kids need winter clothes. Bills are stacking. Every little bit helps us make it to the next paycheck.
Ko-fi takes fees. Venmo/Cash App goes directly to us.
July 2011: I meet Dylan at 14 as youth leaders in our church. We got together at 17. I'm changing my mother's underwear daily, thinking she's just an alcoholic. She's actually dying of stage 4 liver failure, and I don't fully understand it yet.
July 2013: Mom goes from sick on Tuesday to gone the next Tuesday. I wasn't there for her final hours — I was distracting my brother Sam and Dylan with fast food, convinced she couldn't actually die. That guilt has never left me.
January 2014: Six months later, my first baby arrives. I'm 19 years old, grieving, learning to be a mother without my mother.
July 2015: Second baby. I'm 21 with two under two.
2016-2018: I become my grandmother Donna Chambers' full-time caregiver while pregnant. Young, bipolar, struggling. Eventually I can't lift her anymore and she's placed at Trinity Nursing Home. In 2017, her three properties sold for $33,000 — she owed under 3 grand. Grandma always said those homes were for me and my brother, but we had to move out with 2 babies under 2. That move to Waxahachie led us to Dylan's current boss, so everything happens for a reason.
January 2019: Grandma Donna dies.
November 2019: Twins are born. Breastfeeding them both. Four kids under six years old. Still kept babysitting.
March 2020: COVID lockdown hits. Four small children. No help. No relief.
2020-2023: My body completely collapses. Fatigue, fainting, pain, neurological symptoms I can't explain. I focus on my degree at the time — just a bachelor's.
March 2024: Dylan loses his grandmother Patsy King — she was basically his mom. Then Billy Joe and Evelyn Cooke pass — his bosses at C&C Refrigeration who built that company and gave him his start in HVAC.
Summer 2024: I graduate with my Master's degree.
Now: Here we are. Still fighting. Still rising.
These aren't excuses — they're documented medical conditions that impact my ability to work consistently, even though I want to.
Just about every job I've ever had would recommend me. I show up, I work hard, I care about doing things right.
What isn't great? Unreliable cars, unreliable sitters, and unpredictable health. When your car dies the day after a medical emergency, when companies do mass layoffs, when chronic illness hits at the worst possible time — this is what happens.
I want to work. I'm actively working. But sometimes life stacks everything against you all at once.
You can do everything right and still lose.
Education + skills + work ethic ≠ immunity from disaster
Born April 1 (same age as me) | HVAC Supervisor at C&C Refrigeration, 9 years
He's not just my husband. He's a self-taught Linux engineer, electrical and mechanical genius, and the technical backbone of everything I build. When I'm coding at 2am and hit a wall, Dylan's there. When servers need configuring, that's Dylan's world.
He watched me change my dying mother's underwear. He was there the day she died. He's lost his own grandmother. He misses work when I have medical emergencies.
He stays because he wants to. Because he loves me and the life we've built together. Not obligation. Not convenience. Love.
It's Dylan and Heather. Together forever. Infinity. ❤️
Because someone else is one car breakdown away from losing everything.
Because someone else is working multiple jobs and still drowning.
Because someone else has a medical episode at work and loses their income overnight.
Because someone else is watching their kids need things they can't provide right now.
Because someone else carries guilt about not being there when their parent died.
Because someone else keeps getting knocked down and keeps getting back up.
You're not alone. We are all just people trying our best.
Some days, staying in the fight IS the victory.
I'm still here. Still fighting. Still believing things will get better.
Carrie Hilliard, Donna Chambers, Patsy King, and Elva McConnell
Every tool I've built came from living through this struggle.
Free. Forever. Because families deserve better.