Since the Nov. 1 fire that killed her husband, Ashley Summers has been embroiled in a dispute over funding for the family being raised through a website.
Summers is on unpaid leave from Bath Iron Works while she and her two daughters, ages 3 and 5, seek grief counseling, and is falling behind on bills such as rent and utilities.
As of Dec. 19, Summers said she hadn’t received any money for the family’s expenses, which include what she expects to be tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills.
“Financially we were getting by because we had each other,” Summers, 25, said, referring to her late husband, Steven. “It’s tough to lose my income and his. I’m trying to grieve, but now I’m focused on money.”
But on Wednesday she said she had reached an agreement with the organizer, who said he will pay the family and shut down the site within a week.
As of Dec. 23, a GoFundMe page set up online by Paul Garrido, Steven’s friend who escaped the Noyes Street fire with minor injuries, had raised more than $6,700 toward its $10,000 goal.
Garrido was Steven Summers’ roommate while he and his wife were separated and trying to work through some marriage issues.
The original purpose of the campaign was to pay for Summers’ hospital bills. After he died, the stated goal was “helping his family with any costs associated with his funeral and donating the rest to an account set up for his daughters as an early college fund and any needs/expenses acquired from the loss of their father.”
Ashley Summers said her husband’s employer paid the funeral expenses, but she is awaiting the medical bills.
GoFundMe is an online fundraising tool for “life’s important moments,” according to the website. Those moments include medical expenses, education costs, volunteer programs, youth sports, funerals and memorials. Campaigns can be set up by a third party, who can either give the beneficiary direct access or withdraw the money and send it to the beneficiary.
Garrido said in a Dec. 19 email that he had placed the money into an account controlled by Steven Summers’ mother.
In an email on Wednesday, Garrido said he had never intended that the money not go to Summers’ widow. He said he simply wanted to give it to Summers’ mother so she could coordinate with Ashley Summers to make sure it was used for the girls.
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