Marine's Mission: A Miracle to Help Mom Save Her Home

Christopher Mann had no idea his mom was in such dire straits.

For months, she kept to herself the struggle to save her house in Chicago Heights. She consulted financial planners, attempted to lower payments, take out loans—”she tried everything,” Mann told Patch—to manage the seemingly insurmountable $24,000 needed to hold onto her home.

And the trouble mounted as Mann, a lance corporal in the U.S. Marines, served his country in Afghanistan.

When he returned from his deployment, she finally looped in her son. And the two became a team.

“I didn’t have $25,000 just laying around,” Mann said. “If I did, i would have just solved the problem on my own, taken care of it.”

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Mann grew up watching his mother putting others’ needs before her own. For more than a decade, she took abused and neglected children into her foster care.

“This was no easy task, as many of these children had endured years of physical and emotional abuse from the ones who were supposed to love them the most—their parents,” Mann wrote of his mother. Many suffered from behavioral and psychological problems, including eating disorders and paralysis. Unable to conceive more children of her own, his mother adopted two younger brothers and a sister to form the family she always wanted.

After years of witnessing her give of herself and her home, it seemed only natural that he try to save the place where so many had found refuge.

Mann turned to the wide world of the Internet. He secretly kicked off a GoFundMe with the hopes of raising $18,000—the remainder of what he and his mother could not cover from their existing funds.

“It had raised $4,000 before I told her about it,” Mann said. “She was completely ecstatic and amazed at the generosity of people.”

In one month, the effort has raised $11,000—not quite enough, but there’s still time. She has until Jan. 2 to pay the total amount, or she loses the title to the home. With thousands to go, she has come up with other options to raise the remainder, though one would include her selling her car.

“I can’t even begin to explain how blown away I am by this,” Mann said. ”My mother was in tears when I told her how much has been raised so far.

“It’s just a huge relief and burden off her shoulders, knowing that she has that much available to her.”

You can still contribute to Mann’s efforts on GoFundMe.

Read more about Mann’s story.