Help Tanya Preyde Start Over After Tragedy

(Real quick: My name is Jessica Hopkins and I'm Tanya Preyde's good friend here in Taiwan. I have her begrudging consent to do this crowdfunding campaign and all your donations are going directly into her account. Please read on for more info.)

For all the talk of putting 2020 behind us, turning over the calendar did not stop COVID-19 or the very expensive and maddening complications it has brought. A few weeks ago, Tanya's sister, Stephanie Preyde, died suddenly, leaving her family, including her 7-year-old daughter, Isabelle, devastated. Tanya rushed home to Canada at considerable expense, which ate significantly into her savings. She is still in quarantine as of my writing this, still waiting to hug her loved ones.

Always practical, even in her grief, she realized that she needs to support her family, especially Isabelle and her father, so she is moving back to Halifax to be a close part of their lives, making herself available for whatever they need going forward. This means that in the next few months, she will first have to fly back to Taiwan and do two more weeks of quarantine and then basically close up the life she's lived here for the past 17 years, including quitting her job, sorting out banks, taxes, and her other affairs, and shipping her belongings to Canada.

From there, she'll fly back to Canada and thanks to COVID, flights are more than double the regular prices ($2300CAD one way). Then comes yet another quarantine following even stricter and more expensive regulations just imposed by the government (estimated at more than $2000CAD. More info here: What are Canada’s latest COVID-19 travel restrictions? Quarantine hotels and airport testing explained - The Globe and Mail). Then she will embark on a housing and job search in a place she hasn't lived in since the early 2000s, all in the middle of a pandemic. It's a lot, to put it mildly. In so many ways, it's a lot.

Moving is complicated and stressful and incredibly expensive, even more so with all the international regulations and red tape. So many expenses just pop up out of nowhere. That's even before you add in a worldwide pandemic and having to do it on the heels of a sudden tragedy. So I've set the goal of this campaign to $10,000CAD to cover moving, quarantine, and testing costs and give Tanya a small cushion to start her life again from scratch. Worrying about money should be the last thing on her mind right now.

If you know Tanya, you know that she vehemently hates the very idea of asking for this kind of help. But dealing with a tragedy of this kind leaves no room for pride or modesty. When people are going through something awful, it is our natural inclination to want to help. Taking the pressure of a looming financial burden off is a real and meaningful way to help. Thank you for your attention and for your contribution. Tanya and her closest friends and family greatly appreciate all the outpouring of love, prayers, and support you have shown over the past few weeks and, undoubtedly, in the months to come.