Once-prosperous family struggling on the edge

The Dallas Morning News ^ | Aug. 18, 2003 | SHERRY JACOBSON

[Deborahrah]

I know for a fact that Dallas and Fort Worth have active food banks were the poor can get groceries and other emergency supplies. There is even help available with the utilities. Many of the churches also supply food. No one should be having to panhandle in that area. There are jobs, maybe not the type that he had. If I were this family, I would get all of the help that I could from food banks etc. I would have her stay at home with the child. She could perhaps do childcare for one other child and help pay the bills? I would work two jobs if I had to. I would beg someone to hire me. If a foreign illegal immigrant can find work, so too could they!

[Richard Kimball]

If only you'd voted for Al Gore, we'd have been spared this nonsense. There are no homeless and broken lives stories during a Rat administration.

[willieroe]

There are a lot of mean spirited, and just plain ignorant comments on this thread. First of all I'll guess...

And therein lies the problem - with a one-sided, incomplete article such as this, we're all guessing.

[Porterville]

I agree completely, or she could move back to NY

[new cruelty]

lol, I ran a Lexis-Nexus search. Nothing came up but I'm still searching.

[maxwell]

the bottom line is that sometimes you have to adjust to changed circumstances and you adjust as best you can, even if it involves moving to another city, taking help from relatives, or working at Starbuck's.

Yep... I don't understand that FL builder dude you told about. I've been working on the bottom rung for as long as I've been working and got used to it-- nothing better than gettin' off minimum wage job and heading to the bar to blow all yer pocket money on cheap comfort... Country club shmuntry club. It's the small things in life. I never tried to impress anybody with anything more'n my wit. (Hehehe...)

One thing I hope I never get used to, is having money. I've been living on the edge all my life and I hope I never lose that feeling even if (when?) it's unwarranted. I read too many stories like this one, even if it is hokey-- I've read many more real ones about all the engineers in this country losing their shirts to India...

[Cooter]

The article may be BS, but you seem to be tripped up over the word "furnace". I have two houses in North Central Texas with central heat/AC. The heat on both are provided by gas furnaces.

Furnace An enclosed heating device powered by coal, oil, propane or natural gas.

[Iwo Jima]

I am not naive and my reading comprehension is excellent. I also have had more (indirect) experience with breast cancer than I would like to have had.

I don't wish to say too much about this because many people live for a long time fueled by hope, but the long term survival rates of breast cancer are not good. The five year survival rates are just that. And once there are "spots" on the lung and liver, prospects are dim.

So based on my own knowledge, I concluded that this woman is far worse off than she publicly wants to acknowledge and I have tremendous sympathy for her. On the other hand, my opinions about chemotherapy are such that I could easily be persuaded that her life expectancy had been enhanced by the inability to get chemo for some period of time.

[cherry]

this story smells to high heaven...

they moved out of their expensive condo, and then suddenly later they are caught up with their house mortgage?....did they own both or did they buy the house with all the pan-handlings?

you mean the daddy couldn't work a couple of jobs even small jobs like at the gas station or at a pizza parlor to keep them going?...almost sounds like they thought they were too good to take a regular paying job like most Americans.... it sounds like he thought he could get his 6 figure pay back just like that....

despite her cancer....she could have done some kind of work when daddy was home....if she had the energy to pan handle, she had the energy to get a real job....

so they don't use their air-conditioning?.....shyster...what passes for sacrifice nowadays...( we don't have air conditioning period!)

all in all, for these parents to be starting out late in life with children...relatively.....they should have been able to save a bundle up until the kids came....

they sound like self-centered high-maintenance people .....

God save us from these types...

[hopespringseternal]

And therein lies the problem - with a one-sided, incomplete article such as this, we're all guessing.

Unless you seen this scam unfold again and again. And anytime someone tells you a sob story meant to loosen your wallet, it had better add up.

This article was done by a bad writer with an agenda.

[Iwo Jima]

So sorry to hear about your wife. Don't read my post #148. And by all means don't let your wife read it.

[Mad Dawgg]

"My husband died a few months ago, and I am reorganizing my budget to live on much less.

If you have some resources, and time, you can set yourself up to live on very little, if necessary.

Granted, we all make bad decisions, and pay for them, and she obviously needs health insurance.

But it seems to me that what people in this article call "strength" or being "a fighter" is pure stubbornness and grasping. By the way, I not only could live on $15 an hour, it would be a promotion."

Nail/Head!

Sorry to hear about your loss. But, it seems like you've got the handle on how to cope. My mother could not cope when my dad was injured and could not work for 9 months. She just could not cut her spending and paid for it all with credit at 18%. That was nearly 15 years ago and she is still paying for her lack of financial discipline.

Most of these stories point out the real truth of the problem in America which is not a crisis of lost jobs or of low wages but is a crisis of priorities.

Most folks think they are entitiled to a certain lifestyle and if things go bad then the government needs to bail them out. Guess what! Sometimes life throws us a curve and things go bad. Yeah it sucks but damn it nobody said life was gonna be easy. Face it folks, the job market is fluid now! Today's darling technology job is soon to be automated or transferred to a lower wage somewhere else.

You can try luddite like tactics and toss your wooden shoes into the works but you won't stop changing landscape of employment or progress with more government regulation.

[cherry]

" However, there are a lot of people that are down and out"

of course there are.....

shoot....,maybe we will be there someday....my husbands employer is in the process of finalizing a great big screw job on the few employes left.....

but you know what....you won't find a single fur in my closet.....

[Iwo Jima]

I was wondering why I have been paying every year for furnace maintenance when according to the poster I cannot possibly have a furnace. I guess that warranty on my furnace is pretty much worthless.

Darn.

[TheSpottedOwl]

What I don't understand is why everyone went off on her buying coffee? You can get store brand coffee on sale for a couple of bucks. Sheesh, it wasn't like she bought a 12 pack of Coke, pork rinds, and a couple of 40's...

Just what kind of coffee do people here drink, anyway?

[Mad Dawgg]

"Nonsense. Plenty of people manage their income "conservatively" at that level. Nobody writes about them, though."

Sure, they get written about by our liberal politicians! You know, the winners of life's lottery, the wealthy that get all those tax breaks, the ones that aren't paying their fair share!

[Iwo Jima]

Yes, I thought that the "GOTCHAs" about the coffee was pretty lame. Coffee doesn't cost much and lasts a long time. If this woman wanted her and her husband to have some coffee, I would have gladly paid the couple of bucks to but them some. Such a small thing to hammer someone about.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Yes, I thought that the "GOTCHAs" about the coffee was pretty lame. Coffee doesn't cost much and lasts a long time."

The point of the article is this woman needed to panhandle for food to feed her family! Coffee has no nutritional value as opposed to fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, and dairy! So it is illogical to spend money on something that does not meet nutritional needs when one has to panhandle for the money to buy it!

Again a clear case of a crisis of priorities!

[Iwo Jima]

I just thought! that it was a weak! point!

[TheSpottedOwl]

So sorry to hear about your wife. Don't read my post #148. And by all means don't let your wife read it.

I think you misunderstood. My mom and dad had cancer. I'm a divorced female around that woman's age in the story. I recently gave in and went to a county health clinic. I thought being white and a citizen meant I wouldn't qualify for MediCal. Chasing my tail all night long for several months, I decided it would be better just to go and pay off the bill for the rest of my life. Guess what, apparently there is a good chance that I do qualify...because I'm single and have 2 children at home. The worker also told me to apply for food stamps. I'm a college student, but I don't know how long that's going to last if I don't start feeling better. Blahblahblah, wahwahwah...