Well, since I last wrote, my other brother (technically, half-brother) has offered to put me up, although he lives maybe an hour and a half away, and my dad has put a sizeable amount of money in the account I opened yesterday. Yeah, I needed a second account: the first one I opened was at the bank my wife and I currently use, so I couldn't get an ATM card without it being visible to her, so ... I shouldn't have opened it at all when I heard that, but the branch is easier to reach on foot. Anyway, the point is that now each of my relatives has started to help me, and that makes me very grateful (and a bit guilty.)

The steps are coming pretty slowly, but with all this help, at least the worst-cases that I've been so afraid of don't exist any more. And all the advice I'm getting, including from folks on here, is really helping me feel less alone. I've begun to realize just how isolated I've let myself become. That's something for me to work on in the longer run.