Editor's Note: This story was previously posted on StratfordToday.ca.
Nicky Mercer is doing what she can to be a great friend.
In a post on Facebook, Mercer put out a call of support to help her friend Stephanie Irvine who's life dramatically changed on August 1 last year when she was shot by a neighbour who also shot and killed her partner Jonathan Bennett.
The post describes the battle that Irvine has been going through, including moving to Waterloo with her children to a small room, her ongoing surgeries, and of course the financial challenges she faces due to not being able to work.
“Physically she is getting better, but it is going to be a long time before she has use of that arm,” Mercer said. “She has another surgery scheduled for next week, and was concerned with how she was going to get there as she is not getting rides from Victim Services anymore, so I will be driving her. What sucks is she's living in a room, they don’t have their own space. It’s her and her two girls in a room. She pays for rent and food, but she only has baby bonus coming in as a source of income.”
Other expenses Irvine is now carrying include paying for a storage unit to keep items from her old home, and the medications she needs during her recovery. When the shooting first happened a Go Fund Me page was set up that has raised over $4,400 dollars, but Irvine plans to use that money for first and last months rent when she finds a place. To date, that has been a challenge.
“If anyone knows of any one that is willing to open up their place that they are renting to her, knowing her circumstances it would be helpful,” said Mercer. “Some things I found is that people are being deterred from renting to her when the situation she was involved in gets brought up. I reached out to a place and let them know everything that had happened and even though they just posted the rental for seven hours, they told me the unit was rented. “
Getting support for her children has also been difficult for Irvine due to hoops that have to be jumped through.
“There was some funding that her daughter was supposed to get due to what happened to Johnny and for some reason she was denied,” said Mercer.
The holiday season was also very hard for the family, as it was their first without their partner and father.
“Christmas was extremely tough,” said Mercer. “Her and Johnny's daughter's birthday was on December 31, so she had to do that as well, which wasn’t easy either. She didn’t have a breakdown until she had packed everything up and moved. Then she kind of had that breakdown moment where she realized that everything was different, and nothing's going to be the same again, and it hit her really hard.”
Anyone looking to help Irvine in any way can reach out to Mercer on Facebook under her account Nicky Ykcin, or by donating to the GoFundMe page which can be found here.
