LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. — It was a stormy day at Karen’s Equine Intervention in Loxahatchee, Tuesday afternoon.
Since 2011 Nora Janssen has operated the non-profit organization named after her daughter Karen.
“She died in 2011 with complications of Cauda equina syndrome, but she certainly suffered from depression,” Janssen recalled.
Shortly after her daughter passed away Janssen and her husband dedicated their lives to helping people like Karen opening this therapeutic ranch which helps people of all ages with anxiety and depression. But their dark days were far from over.
“Unfortunately my husband became very ill and needed a kidney in 2012 that was right after Karen died,” Janssen recalled.
Her husband, a 23-year army veteran, passed away from Cancer in 2015 and that’s when her financial problems started.
Now, her home and its barn is in foreclose. Court documents show the lender first filed foreclosure in 2015 and since then has delayed the sale of her property several times Janssen admits she fell behind then couldn’t catch up on what she owed.
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“It was event after another in between helping him with his healthcare and managing everything else with the non-profit I was overwhelmed and I found that things were just too much,” she said.
Janssen says she didn’t want to place her animals in a new home because some of them require special care. She has goats, chickens, turkeys, horses and a pot belly pig on the property.
For Janssen these animals and this home are her last reminder of her daughter Karen it’s even where she is buried.
“By helping others it helps me it’s what helps me go on and I know my daughter would of loved what I’m doing,” she said.
Janssen has brought herself a little more time with another last-minute loan. But she says if she doesn’t raise $250,000 to buy back her property in a few months she and the animals at Karens’s Equine will have to pack their bags and find a new place to call home.
If you’d like to help Karen’s Equine Intervention you can donate here.