Blogging Away Debt Our Journeys to a Debt-Free Life

by Sara S

Our fridge died last night, and I almost lost it.

We had just finished making dinner. I’d been in and out of the fridge for about 30 minutes, and everything seemed normal. But then my daughter opened it up and said, “Mom, the light isn’t working.” I thought, “Oh great, the bulb blew out.”

Oh girl, it was way worse than a burnt-out bulb.

The fridge had no power at all.

We troubleshooted. We flipped breakers, tested the outlet, and checked everything the user manual and the Internet recommended. Nothing worked. And we had a fridge and freezer full of our COVID-19 stockpile.

I texted a few friends and turned to Facebook to get a recommendation on a repair place. We got several good recommendations, but that small plea for help was answered tenfold. Within no time really, a neighbor had dropped off a mini-fridge they aren’t using. Another friend said they have an extra fridge/freezer on their back porch they emptied out for us. Our village really saved us (and our food).

Like many of you, it seems like the world is crumbling down around us. We’ve been humbled. We found out our 3-week business closure has now become 3 months due to an executive order from our governor. We’ve obviously paused our debt pay-off, and we’re very much in storm mode. We’ve applied for forbearance on student and business loans, forbearance on our mortgage, and all sorts of temporary assistance.

But even as the punches keep coming, I’ve been touched by all the kindness and generosity I’ve seen in our community.

Here’s just some of the good our family has experienced the past few weeks:

• A friend I haven’t talked to in years heard about our temporary business closure and sent us an Amazon gift card to use on our kids.
• A dear friend from college mailed cookies to my daughter—who she has never met—because my daughter’s birthday is this weekend and my little one is disappointed we can’t leave home or have cousins over.
• A non-profit kid’s after-school program our business has supported unexpectedly offered to drop off some birthday surprises for our daughter.
• We were supposed to travel and see our nephew get married in April. They were able to get married yesterday instead in a really small, intimate ceremony with just their parents. We’ll celebrate with them later, but the local news did a little feature on them, so we still got to see video of some of the wedding.
• We live on a small street, and we know a few of the neighbors really well, and the others hardly at all. But we’ve started a text group with all of the neighbors to check on each other, and it’s helped us grow closer as a little community.
• One of my daughter’s teachers has been videoing herself reading books to help and connect with her students. All of my kids’ teachers have been emailing and checking in on all their students.
• People have been writing positive affirmations and funny sayings on the sidewalks in our area. Others are putting teddy bears in their windows so kids can “go on a bear hunt” when they’re on walks.

A repairman is coming in a few hours to run diagnostics on our poor fridge. We’re praying for a good outcome. But if not, I’m calming myself with hope that our village is looking out for each other now more than ever.

What good have you seen in your community during this stressful time?