In our case, it is true that fact is stranger than fiction.  We have had bad luck for so long that we have forgotten what it is like to actually live.  This is our story.  We have been married for 24 years.  We have two sons, ages 17 and 21. I am an RN and my husband is a Speech Therapist.  In 1993, my husband was laid off from his job with E.I DuPont.  He had worked there for 13 years and had hoped at some point to make supervisor.  He, unfortunately, had no other real marketable skills.  We decided to take the plunge and send him back to school.  We sold our house in Virginia and moved to New Hampshire for him to pursue a degree in Communication Disorders at the Univ. of New Hampshire.  For 6 years, we lived on my income alone.  

Finally, in 2000, he graduated with an MS in Communication Disorders. The problem was that we had mounted up massive student loans and credit card debt from the years that he was in school.  In addition, in 1996, while attending school, my husband was diagnosed with Coronary Artery Disease and had to have a cardiac stent placed.  Guess what?  No insurance!  I had not yet qualified for insurance through my job.  We had to declare bankruptcy.  As I'm sure, many of you know, once you declare bankruptcy, you become a financial pariah and any loans (car, house) are at the highest interest rates.  As a new graduate, his income was pretty pitiful at $28,000 per year.  We continued to have to rob Peter to pay Paul to pay off the credit cards and we continue to pay the student loans (and probably will until we die).  His income slowly began to increase, but not fast enough to keep up with the pace of our expenses.  We have always been pretty frugal.  We haven't had but one real vacation since 1993.  

Our "vacations" have mostly consisted of trips to Virginia to attend the funerals of loved ones.  We did take a trip to Washington D.C. to attend a conference for the Tourette’s Syndrome Association in 2004 (expenses paid by the TSA ).  Our youngest son has Tourette's Syndrome and my husband and I received training as advocates for other children with Tourettes.  We own a house, thanks to the assistance of my parents, but have refinanced so many times that we are in the good company of the many people whose mortgage is higher than what their house is worth and have an adjustable arm coming due in May of 2008.  In 2003, my father died.  We began to notice shortly thereafter that my mom's memory was giving out.  We suspected Alzheimer's disease at that time as my maternal grandmother developed it at the age of 68, which was my mother's age at this time.  My mom slowly got worse.  She was scammed out of all of her savings.  She sent all of it by wire to Jamaica to a "Mrs. Mello" who informed her that she had won 8 million dollars in the Australian lottery.  She also took out a $20,000 home equity loan on her house at the suggestion of Mrs. Mello to cover the rest of the supposed taxes, tariffs or what have you to receive the 8 million dollars.  

My mom still thinks that the 8 million will arrive at some point in time.  The FBI was unable to do anything, as these scammers know to work outside of their jurisdiction.  My mom lived on a fixed income and could not afford the $400 a month payments on the equity loan.  My husband and I took over the payments and have been struggling to keep up with them ever since so that my mom wouldn't lose her house.  We have had to suck dry every possible asset we had such as our 401K's to bail my mom out.  My husband even had to request advances on his paycheck in order to keep mom afloat.  We tried for a long time to get my mom to move with us to New Hampshire.  She was in complete denial about her Alzheimer’s and adamantly refused.  I had to try to manage her affairs from 700 miles away.  

Finally, in July of 2007, I went down to Virginia and brought mom back with me.  She thought that she was coming for a visit.  She has been with us ever since.  I found that she was over a year behind on her property taxes.  Her utilities were constantly being shut off for non- payment.  She already had an alarm system in her house for which we have been paying monthly (the contract doesn't run out until October of 2008).  She was suckered into purchasing a new alarm system, which we now have to pay for as well.  I am trying to have the new alarm system cancelled and have written to the VA state Attorney General. Needless to say, we have been inundated.  We already had enough financial woes and general hardships of our own.  My sister is mentally ill and is of absolutely no help.  

My brother is a big shot FBI agent who can't be bothered with anyone else’s problems and hasn't even contacted my mom in about 5 years.  We are all she has!  Adding insult to injury, my husband's mom was diagnosed with lung cancer in the spring of 2006.  She was 73 years old and continued to work as the manager of the local Girl Scout service center just so that she could have health insurance and additional income.  She was unable to continue working and had to pay for Cobra insurance.  We, along with my husband's two brothers, paid for her insurance and bills during this time.  Sadly, we lost her in February of 2007.  We have been drowning financially for as long as we can remember.  We really try to be good, decent and hard working people.  However, it seems that our luck just isn't the best.  We try to help other people whenever we can.  I volunteer for the American Cancer Society and my husband volunteers for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.  We both volunteer for the Tourette’s syndrome Assoc.  We both chose careers in the healthcare field to help people.  

We don't own fancy cars. My husband drives a 2000 Jeep Cherokee for which we just paid over $2500.00 to keep it running ($800.00 of which we still owe).  I drive a 2004 Jeep Liberty.  I'm a home Infusion nurse and I drive around the state seeing patients in their homes.  The price of gas has hit us pretty hard.  I have to fill my tank up sometimes every other day and although I am reimbursed for mileage, it still doesn't seem to be enough.  I have thought about taking a job locally with the hospital, but I need the flexibility of my current job so that I can care for my mom.  We just had to declare chapter 13 bankruptcy.  It was the only way to save our house as we had gotten about 2 months behind on the payments.  In February of this year, my husband lost his job, as the Rehab Company for which he worked lost their contract with the nursing home.  He has been desperately trying to find another job, but like the rest of the country, hiring seems to be at a stand still.  We are hoping that he will be offered a job at a Rehab facility that is 73 miles away.  That will mean about a 3-hour commute each day and more gas, but it is the closest full time position that he could find.  

We are at rock bottom at this point.  We are so desperate that I am waiting with baited breath for a Sallie Mae Plus college loan refund to come in the mail so that we don't overdraft. Our oldest son is studying at the local tech.  Our house payment is due by the 16th of the month and my paycheck on the 18th won't be enough to cover it, groceries, gas etc.   We have 1/2 a tank of heating oil and owe $600.00 for that.  My mom's remaining equity loan balance is about $7500.00. She has so many misc. bills that I have lost count.  We still have to pay utilities on her house until we can sell it.  I haven't been able to take any more time off from work to go to Virginia to get it ready to sell.  Any proceeds from the sale will have to go for in home care for her, as she will not be able to stay home alone while I work.  

We have great faith in God and no doubt, all these things have happened according to His plan and for a reason.  The only reasoning that we can figure is that God is trying to build our character.  However, we just don't know how much more character building we can take.  I have a dream to be able to get through a day without having to juggle bowling balls to meet our needs. To be able to take a deep breath and know that we are OK.  Believe me we are for real.  I don't think anyone could make this up.  If you have doubts, just log on the the Alzheimer's Association website and check the message boards under postings by Maplesyrp.  

We have gotten pretty desperate to get to this point.   However, we would be the most grateful people in the world for any assistance that we might receive.  We have pretty much moved past pride (I just realized that this might be God's plan....).  We must note here that we are aware that there are many people in the world who are in need and we certainly do not feel that we are any more worthy of help than these desperate souls.  However, we most humbly request the assistance of any generous persons, as we have been down so long that we are running out of steam.