I think I might have finally reached the end. I’m 55, a widow, and even working full-time I can’t support myself or stay ahead of my bills. I came home tonight and water is leaking from somewhere — I can’t figure out where — my hallway flooring gave way, so it must have been slowly leaking for a while — and I don’t have the money to fix anything else in this house.

My health has been going downhill for years, my only daughter has a young family and doens’t have the time or energy to help me, so I’m literally all alone and I’ve lost all hope. Everyone would be so much better off if I just ceased to exist. If I didn’t have two dogs depending on me then I would just leave this world. They are each 16 years old, so they probably won’t live much longer — I think I’ll start getting my affairs in order and as soon as they cross over the rainbow bridge I’ll just join them. I just don’t have the strength to keep fighting for a life that doesn’t want me.

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