In the face of tragedy, friends are rallying around an Edmonds family.

Yvette Sanchez and her two children — 9-year-old Jacob and 6-year-old Sophia — are struggling to pick up the pieces after the family’s husband and father Ben Busby-Collins died Jan. 19.

“It is a great loss for this family in terms of their grief. It is also a great loss in terms of their security,” wrote friend Leah Barnett. “The family has been left debts which they cannot afford to pay, housing which they can no longer sustain.”

Sanchez works at Twist Yoga as a teacher and is also a massage therapist at the Health and Wellness Clinic, both in Edmonds. But she “is also traumatized and cannot work as much as she may be able to in order to afford to buy groceries, necessities, clothing, or to sustain the activities for Jacob such as soccer, or gymnastics for Sophia,” Barnett noted.

Monetary contributions or goods/services are welcome, including clothing, shoes and groceries, said Barnett, who has created a donation page via gofundme.com

“It is my goal to raise money for the family in order to help them be able to continue with life with at least some kind of normalcy, especially for the children,” Barnett wrote on the web page. “Please know that even a small donation makes a difference, and that your money will go towards helping and healing this family, and it will allow them to move forward to a future where there will always be sadness and heartache around this loss, but hopefully they be survivors who can hold their heads up high, with a warm bed and meals each day, and some peace from the security that you can help provide them.”