When a car crashed through the wall of Noeline Keogh's living room in early December, it was one in a string of calamities to have befallen the Eaglehawk resident.
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Now Mrs Keogh has suffered more heartbreak: this week, her friend died and her car was broken into, with sentimental items and important documents stolen.
"I'm defeated... How much do you lose before you give up?" Mrs Keogh said.
Mrs Keogh's house of almost 40 years was rendered uninhabitable when a car slammed into it in the early hours of December 7.
The home was built by her husband, Bryan, who died in February 2018.
She had spent more than two decades caring from him after a serious workplace accident in 1996.
Mrs Keogh and her husband raised their four children in the home, and it is the place where their 16 grandchildren enjoyed visits.
The house was uninsured, as Mrs Keogh had been unable to meet both insurance and mortgage payments.
Her husband's medical needs were expensive, and she continued to pay them off after he died.
Mrs Keogh said the repairs to the lounge room were quoted as being $50,000 to $60,000.
"I don't know how you start again," she said.
Mrs Keogh has since been living with her daughter, Sally Honeychurch.
But on the night her car was ransacked, she had gone to stay with a friend in Huntly.
Among the belongings stolen were tools that had belonged to her husband and her son Daniel, who died in 2003, and jumper leads in a bag that had been gifted to her by another late relative.
"They aren't worth anything, but to me they're very precious," Mrs Keogh said.
Other family members have died in recent years and Mrs Keogh has also been battling chronic pancreatitis, a serious illness.
Mrs Honeychurch described her mother as caring, having taken in more than 35 foster children and kids in need.
"It's just heartbreaking," Mrs Honeychurch said.
A friend has set up a Go Fund Me page to provide financial assistance to Mrs Keogh, which you can find here.
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