A Bridgeport woman is fighting to keep her home after a death in the family led to a difficult discovery.

Lois Patrick inherited her childhood home on Wentworth Street when her mother died three years ago. She moved in with her kids and her husband because she said it holds many happy memories of her mother and her family traditions growing up.

However, Patrick says her mother never told her that she had fallen behind on her property taxes and was just too prideful to ask for help, something Patrick warns others not to do.

"We're about to lose the house due to back taxes," she says. "She wasn't neglectful, she just could not afford it, and she didn't know that if she had gone down to the tax assessor's office and asked them to freeze her taxes, she would have done so."

Patrick says over an 18-month period, her whole family worked together, and paid off almost half the debt. Still, she says that wasn't fast enough for the tax collector who's now evicting the family.

Patrick says eviction will leave her family homeless.

“I am sharing my story here because if I can help just one person not have to go through this, it would be worth it, because the agony that me and my family have suffered the last three years over this has been unbearable," she says. "We need to stop keeping secrets and we need to tell…we would have been looking at a much smaller rate to pay in order to save the house."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal says he's going to personally get in touch with the tax collector to try and figure out some kind of solution— at least to try to buy the family some more time.

"I'm so moved by this story about Lois Patrick," he says. "We should do everything possible to enable this family to stay where they are and I'm going to look into what the options are."

Sen. Blumenthal also says the governor's emergency COVID-19 order affords families like this one certain protections.

In the meantime, Patrick says she's warning other families to seek help early if they’re in danger of losing their home.

"If I can help one person not have to go through this, that would definitely be worth it," she says.