My name is Mary, I'm 47 years old and I live in Italy.

Ten years ago, my life fell apart in ways I never expected. My partner left me for someone else, walking away from the home we had built together — a home that was in both our names, with a mortgage we had taken on together. He left. I stayed. And I kept paying.

At the same time, I had been running a small ice cream shop that I loved. Then the 2012 earthquake hit our region and destroyed everything I had built. I had to close, but I refused to leave debts behind — I paid every supplier, every tax, every obligation. To do that, I took out loans. I was a factory worker with a modest salary. There was no other way.

For ten years I have been paying the mortgage alone, plus two loans I took on to survive and to do the right thing by everyone I owed money to. I never missed a payment. Not once.

Now my ex-partner needs to be removed from the mortgage and the property deed. To do that, the bank requires me to first pay off the two loans — approximately €50,000 — so that my debt-to-income ratio allows the mortgage to be transferred to my name alone. Without that, I face losing my home entirely.

My goal is €50,000 — the minimum I need to pay off the loans and finally have the mortgage transferred to my name. If I am lucky enough to reach €80,000, I could pay off the entire remaining mortgage and close this chapter once and for all, with no more debt hanging over me.**

Selling is not the solution: the house is worth less than when we bought it, a new mortgage would be harder to obtain, and — honestly — I cannot rent with my dog, my cats, and my rabbits. They are my family. They are the reason I kept going.

I am not asking for charity. I am asking for a chance to finally close a chapter that should have closed years ago, and to keep the home I never stopped fighting for.

Any contribution, no matter how small, brings me one step closer. If you cannot donate, sharing this page costs nothing and means everything.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Mary